What is Detox really? It’s probably not what you think!

When people first learn about healing their bodies and the concept of “Detox” or Regenerative Detoxification or Cleaning your Inner Terrain, there is often a confusion about how the process works.

We often think that, if we apply certain substances to the body, then we can detox our bodies.

We get sold on this idea with people marketing Detox Drinks, Liver Cleanses, Herbs, Tonics and even the idea that various foods Detox the body.

This is simply not true.

There is nothing that can be applied to the body to detox the body.

Only the body can detox itself.

This is so important to understand.

The body takes all of the actions.

What we can do is put the conditions in place to lift enough burden from the body that the body is able to initiate the detoxification mechanisms.

This is where returning to the biologically appropriate diet for your species comes in.

This is why Fruits and Greens lead to healing.

Not because the Fruits and Greens are detoxifying the body, but because they are putting the conditions in place for the body to heal itself.

Fruits lead to detox but do not create detox.

Fruits are removing the burden of digesting heavy slow digesting foods which drains our energy.

Fruits are high in water content, allowing the body to hydrate the dry lymph fluids (our bodies sewer system).

Fruits leave no additional waste for the body to clean up after.

Fruits provide clean essential sugars to fuel every bodily process.

Fruits create a positive energy balance. Giving more energy than they take away.

This is also why Water Fasting is such a powerful tool in healing. When we water fast, when we abstain from all food for an extended period, the body is able to shift all energy from digestion to healing. Every ounce of energy that was being put into the massive digestion system is shifted to cleaning and repair.

Healing is all about energy.

“Life should be built on the conservation of energy.” – Herbert Shelton

Each detox process the body initiates drains our nerve energy. Each digestion process also drains our nerve energy. Each toxin we ingest drains our nerve energy. We have a finite amount of energy available in our lifetimes. If we continuously drain this energy by misfeeding ourselves on toxins, difficult to digest high protein foods, foods that deposit a lot of waste or keeping our bodies in a state of constant stress with stimulant foods and beverages and stressful lifestyle choices, then we run down our energy banks and the body cannot gather enough energy to run a detox process.

If we put in harmacuetical drugs or natural remedies and even spices and “medicinal foods” like garlic, honey, ginger or turmeric, we are adding to the bodies burden. These foods and drugs which stop the cleaning symptoms are not helping our health. They are damaging our health. They are adding to the burden on the body and draining our energy tank.

If a product is used to stop pain, stop inflammation, stop a cold or a flu then you know this product is harming your health, not helping it. Pain, inflammation, colds, flus, expulsion symptoms, rashes are all the body ridding itself of waste. Using that precious nerve energy to detoxify your body.

When we stop these processes we not only add more waste burden to our bodies AND stop the body from ridding the waste it was just eliminating, BUT WE ALSO sacrifice that nerve energy that the body worked so hard to store up.

Think of each decision as an addition or subtraction of your precious finite time. Each meal, each remedy, each drug is a drain, a subtraction of that time.

Some subtractions are unavoidable, we live in a toxic world. But most are avoidable and should be saved for when the body needs to create a detox program.

So choose those foods which help put the conditions into place to allow the body to clean and heal.

Avoid those products which are marketed as detoxing your body, because only your body can detox itself. Take some solid food vacations from time to time (Juice feasting or Water Fasting). Eat your biologically appropriate foods, Fruits and leafy greens. Avoid those foods which take many hours to digest and steal your precious energy stores.

You are an energetic being.

You are a miraculous, self healing machine.

Learn how to put the conditions into place for your body to heal itself.

Then sit back and watch the magic happen.

Learn more about our miraculous healing bodies, start here: What is Healthy?

Detox is not something we do to our bodies, it is something our bodies do to us.

Cheap and Petty Liars

Why do you believe the lies
that drain you of your highs?
That program is not meant for you,
those cheap and petty lies.

The ones that say
you’re not enough,
your small,
your weak,
you’ll lose.

The fear
the doubt
the lies
that shout
inside your head
or from without

words that keep
you from your dreams,
or tear you apart
at your seams,

blaming your genes,
wishing for the means,
while you’re paying down your liens,
and finding fleeting comfort in your screens.

You deserve it all my friend,
all that your heart desires
so don’t listen anymore
to those cheap and petty liars.

Fight for what you want in life
believe with all your heart
and you will find that’s just the thing
you needed from the start.

The life you want is in your reach
if you believe its true
because belief my friend
is just what sees you through.

Through the lies
through the pain
through the tides
and through the rain

If you believe
the programmed lies
then the dream within you dies

but if instead you choose to live
and focus on what you have to give
the light within begins to shine

and that will be the greatest sign
that your inner power will outshine
those cheap and petty lies.

9 Healthy Snacks Bars That You Can Actually Feel Good About

These 9 healthy snack bars are made with real food, no science projects, no additives, no toxic ingredients. Whether you are looking for healthy snack bars for yourself or to pack in lunch boxes for your children, it is not always easy to find real food in premade form. Sure the advertising on the box will tell you it is “Healthy”, “All-Natural” and “Organic”, but does any of that really mean that they are healthy?

Unfortunately, the large majority of packaged foods are downright unhealthy. Even the ones that advertisers want us to believe are healthy. Many of them contain corn syrup or added sugars in any one of its 61 different names. They contain isolates, artificial sweeteners, processed proteins, whey protein and other heavily processed, toxic and unnatural substances. They are cooked or processed until all of the enzymes and nutrients are destroyed. And then they are sold to us as “Nutrition Bars.”

We all lead busy lives. No matter how much we would like to make everything from scratch, time is often against us. Knowing that you can feed your family nutritious food even when you are too busy to make it yourself is so important for many of us. Especially when we are working long hours and raising a family or taking care of elderly relatives, volunteering, or taking care of any number of responsibilities.

For me, finding healthy foods while traveling has always been a big challenge. I am not willing to sacrifice my health just because I am on the road, so finding healthy premade snacks has been key for me maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So I decided to search out all of the healthy snack bars on the market today. I eliminated all bars that contain any unnatural or processed ingredients. I also eliminated all bars that contained any added sugars, food coloring, “natural” or artificial flavors, whey protein, dairy products and other unhealthy ingredients.

So I decided to search out all of the healthy snack bars on the market today. I eliminated all bars that contain any unnatural or processed ingredients. I also eliminated all bars that contained any added sugars, food coloring, “natural” or artificial flavors, whey protein, dairy products and other unhealthy ingredients.

These 9 healthy snack bars are what remained. Most of them are organic and raw or mostly raw. Additionally, below the list, I have ranked each bar based on price value and noted whether the ingredients are organic or not. To jump down to the price comparison click here.

9 healthy snack bars that you can actually feel good.

Click To Tweet

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #1: Two Moms in the Raw Nut Bars

Actually Healthy Snacks - Two Moms in the Raw Blueberry Blast — Actually Healthy Snacks – Two Moms in the Raw Blueberry Blast

Two Moms in the Raw are my number one choice for healthy snack bars. They simply do not compromise on quality. If I was to personally make a Snack Bar to give to the world this would be exactly what I would make.

All Two Moms in the Raw bars are 100% organic, even the spices they use are organic. They are also Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Vegan and Free of all Refined Sugars!

They are a true living food, which means they are completely raw leaving all nutrients, enzymes and antioxidants intact and available for your body. Living foods are easier to digest and the nutrients are more bioavailable. Additionally, all of the nuts and seeds are sprouted, further increasing their nutrient value. These bars are real food made the right way.

The Two Moms in the Raw Sprouted Bars come in several delicious flavors:

Blueberry Burst

Charming Cherry Chocolate

Cranberry Crush

Gotta Getta Gojiberry

Go For Goldenberry

Cranberry Crush has some great ingredients to fight inflammation and is loaded with antioxidants. And to fight the signs of aging, go for the Goji berries in the Gotta Getta Gojiberry bar.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #2: Raw Crunch Bars

Note: These bars contain honey.

Raw Crunch Bars are Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Completely Raw. This means that all of their live enzymes are still intact and all of the nutrition is still available for your body.

These Raw Crunch Bars are on the same quality level as the Two Moms in the Raw. They contain only real food and they are a raw living food. This means you get all the nutrient and antioxidant benefits from each ingredient.

These bars are rich in Omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids which are essential for healthy brain function.

These tasty Raw Food Bars are Organic, loaded with antioxidants and Superfoods, and they come in several different flavors:

Dark Chocolate Cherry

and a Variety Pack so you can try all 6 flavors

If you are having a hard time deciding, go with the Dark Chocolate Cherry, it is delightful. If your not a chocolate person, the Blueberry Lemon is fresh and delicious as well.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #3: Lara Bars

Actually Healthy Snacks - Larabar — Actually Healthy Snacks – Larabar

Larabars have been around for quite a while now. They are all made with simple natural ingredients like Dates, Almonds, Cashews and Pecans. All of the flavors are created using real foods and spices, no artificial anything.

They are Dairy Free, Soy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan, and Non-GMO, but they are not certified organic. I love the simple ingredients, but I do wish they were Organic.

With more than 20 flavors of original Larabars available, you are bound to find a favorite.

Here are just some of the flavors available:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

Coconut Chocolate Chip

Lemon Bar

Or You can get a Variety Pack Here

Cherry Pie is my favorite flavor and the Lemon Bar and Blueberry Muffin flavors are excellent as well. But I have never had a flavor I didn’t like.

Organic Bars Now Available!

Larabars has just released 3 new Organic Bars with Superfoods. You can get a variety pack here. Their new flavors include Coconut Kale and Cacao, Turmeric Ginger and Beet, and Hazelnut Hemp and Cacao.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #4: Amrita Protein Bars

Amrita Protein Bars are another great choice for a healthy snack bar. They are free from the 8 common allergens: Gluten, Peanuts, Soy, Dairy, Eggs, Corn, Fish, and Shellfish. They are also Vegan and most of their ingredients are organic.

Amrita Protein Bars are real food, sweetened only with fruit. They contain only real whole food ingredients. Amrita has even removed the maple syrup from their bars to minimize the sugar and focus on raw food ingredients. They never use any artificial flavors or chemical additives. Additionally, these bars make a great post workout snack or anytime you are in need of an energy boost.

Amrita Protein Bars are higher in protein than most of the other whole food bars. They use brown rice as their protein source and average 15 grams of protein in each bar. They make a great post workout snack or anytime you are in need of an energy boost. Many athletes use them as part of their training regime and they are particularly popular with road bikers who often need high energy compact snacks to refuel while riding.

They try to source organic ingredients for all their primary ingredients, but some of their spices are not organic.

Actually Healthy Snack Bars - Amrita Protein Bars - Mango Coconut — Actually Healthy Snack Bars – Amrita Protein Bars – Mango Coconut

Amrita Bars come in a variety of flavors:

All of their bars feature some form of superfoods, from Maca to Chia Seeds. They are also a good source of calcium thanks to the sesame seeds. Additionally, they are a good source of Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids thanks to their Chia Seed content.

Try the Pineapple Chia for a great anti-inflammatory bar or the Chocolate Maca for improved endurance.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #5: Eat Nakd Bars

Healthy Snack Bars - Eat Nakd Bars — Healthy Snack Bars – Eat Nakd Bars

Eat Nakd Bars are based around just a few simple ingredients: Dates, Nuts, Raisins, and Spices. They are Wheat Free, GlutenFree, Dairy Free, GMO-Free, Raw, and Vegan!

They have two main varieties, fruit and nut bars and crunch bars. The crunch bars contain soy protein puffs, which I personally can not recommend as they are a processed food. So I personally would choose only the fruit and nut bars and avoid the crunch flavors.

These bars are not organic but they are Certified GMO Free. They are made by a company in Great Britain and are popular there but have only recently become available in the U.S.

My only other concern with these bars is that they are flavored with “natural flavors.” There explanation on their website for natural flavors is as follows: “The natural flavorings are simply all-natural flavors such as spices and extracts from ingredients like strawberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, nuts, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, peanut, etc.”

Since this is a product produced outside of the U.S. their standards and labeling are different than U.S. terms, therefore you will have to make your own judgment on what “natural flavors” may mean.

They have a large variety of flavors to choose from. Here are just a few of the flavors they offer:

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #6: Amazing Grass Green SuperFood Bars

Amazing Grass Green Superfood Bars are Organic, Non-GMO, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Raw. They all contain the Amazing Grass Superfood Blend which is also available in a powder form here. (If you are not taking the Amazing Grass Superfood powder yet, start today, you can thank me later 😉 ) The Amazing Grass Blend is highly alkalizing and loaded with antioxidants, which are potent disease fighters. As we know, diseases can not thrive in an alkaline body, so anything we can do to increase our bodies alkalinity is essential for disease prevention. (

The Amazing Grass Blend is highly alkalizing and loaded with antioxidants, which are potent disease fighters. As we know, diseases can not thrive in an alkaline body, so anything we can do to increase our bodies alkalinity is essential for disease prevention. (

Learn more about the importance of Alkalizing.

If you are not getting your pound a day of leafy greens, then the Amazing Grass Bars are for you. They contain a full complement of green superfoods including organic wheat grass, organic barley grass, organic alfalfa, organic spirulina, organic spinach, organic chlorella, organic broccoli, organic acai, organic maca, organic carrot, organic beet, raspberry, organic rose hips, pineapple, green tea, and organic flax lignans.

These healthy snack bars come in a variety of flavors:

Healthy Snack Bars - Amazing Grass Green SuperFood Bars — Healthy Snack Bars – Amazing Grass Green SuperFood Bars

Original Flavor

Berry

Cafe Mocha

Chocolate Chip Coconut

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Oatmeal Raisin Nut

Sweet and Savory Almond

These bars contain a lot of potent green foods, so their flavor is a bit grassy. If you are not used to taking a Green Superfood Supplement or eating a lot of leafy greens the flavor of these bars will take a bit of getting used to. But the nutritional benefits make it well worth it. Try the Original or the Berry Flavors, those are my favorites.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #7: Go Raw Sprouted Bars

The Go Raw Sprouted Bars are 100% Organic, Raw, and Sprouted. They are a live food, with all of the natural enzymes and nutrients intact. These bars are also Non-GMO, Gluten-Free, and Vegan. However, they are quite small. They are about 1/3 the size of a Larabar making them the most expensive bars by weight. However, they are very high-quality ingredients and they are sprouted for maximum nutrition.

However, they are quite small. They are about 1/3 the size of a Larabar making them the most expensive bars by weight. However, they are very high-quality ingredients and they are sprouted for maximum nutrition.

These Go Raw Sprouted Bars are good if you are looking for maximum nutrition in a small snack or you are looking for a less sweet snack. The base of these bars is sprouted buckwheat groats, making them crisp, rather than the soft chewy texture of most of the other bars. They are sweetened with dates or raisins or other fruits. Since they are more seeds than fruit they are a great choice for anyone who is in need of a low sugar snack.

For the biggest nutritional benefits try the Sweet Spirulina. Spirulina is a superfood with some amazing health benefits. Here are just a few benefits which scientist have attributed to spirulina, it speeds weight loss, reduced cholesterol, reduces your chances of Stroke, Heart Disease, and Cancer and it even detoxes heavy metals which can cause numerous brain disorders.

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #8: Simple Squares

Note: These bars contain honey.

Simple Squares are unique among the raw food bars because of their flavor choices. If you like to try new and interesting flavors than check out Simple Squares Chili Pepper, Cinnamon Clove or Rosemary flavors.

These bars are Organic, Gluten-Free, Non-GMO and they contain no artificial or synthetic ingredients. They contain only food that you could grow in your own backyard.

Healthy Snack Bars - Simple Squares — Healthy Snack Bars – Simple Squares

Studies have shown that a daily intake of 20 grams of honey prevents age-related mental decline and improves short-term memory. Honey is also an anti-inflammatory food, so these bars are great for arthritis suffers, especially the Ginger, Rosemary and Cinnamon Clove flavors.

Healthy Snack Bars - Bearded Brothers Fabulous Ginger Peach — Healthy Snack Bars – Bearded Brothers Fabulous Ginger Peach

The Best Healthy Snack Bars #9: Bearded Brothers

Bearded Brothers bars are mostly raw with just a few simple ingredients. With primary ingredients of Figs, Dates and Nuts you can feel good that you are eating only real foods. They flavor each bar with dried fruits, extracts, and natural spices, no artificial flavors, and no processed junk.

All of their bars are Vegan-Friendly, Certified Non-GMO, Soy-Free, and Gluten Free. Additionally, most of the ingredients in every bar are Organic and Raw.

Another reason to love these bars is that they all contain either Chia Seeds or Hemp Seeds which provide Omega 3 and 6 Essential Fatty Acids. A deficiency in essential fatty acids can lead to depression, ADHD and other autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder and many other diseases. Omega 3 deficiency is quite common in the traditional American diet and is a big contributing factor to our disease epidemic. Fortunately, it is easily remedied with tasty snacks like these healthy snack bars, or by incorporating Chia Seeds or Flax seeds into your daily diet.

Bearded Brothers wrappers are all Compostable! — Bearded Brother’s wrappers are all Compostable!

Bearded Brothers Bars come in 6 flavors currently:

Colossal Coconut Mango

Fabulous Ginger Peach

Mega Maca Chocolate

Outrageous Orange Kale

Radical Raspberry Lemon

Bodacious Blueberry Vanilla

The Bodacious Blueberry Vanilla is their best seller but the Outrageous Orange Kale is an excellent choice if you want to try something different. It contains figs, dates, kale, beets, and cold pressed orange extract, so it is a great way to get in some more veggies each day!

Plus, an added bonus, their packaging is compostable, so while you are feeding your body, you are also helping to minimize pollution. It’s a win, win!

Value Per Ounce – Which Healthy Snack Bars are Most Affordable?

Below is how these bars rank according to their price per ounce. This is based on the current price at the time this article was published. Since these products are all natural products their prices will fluctuate with the price of commodities. Additionally, different flavors may be priced higher or lower than other flavors of the same brand. Therefore I have not included price calculations and this should just be used as a rough guide to help you choose which brands will best meet your health and budget needs.

Listed from Least Expensive to Most Expensive per ounce price

Larabars – Not Organic
Amazing Grass Green Superfood – Organic and Raw – Vegan
Eat Nakd – Not Organic
Two Mom’s in the Raw – 100% Organic and 100% Raw and Sprouted – Vegan
Amrita Protein Bars – Organic and Raw
Simple Squares – Organic and Raw – Not Vegan (contains honey)
Bearded Brothers – Organic and Raw
Larabar Organic Superfood – Organic
Raw Crunch – Organic and Raw – Not Vegan (contains honey)
Go Raw Bars – 100% Organic, Sprouted, and 100% Raw – Vegan

What are your favorite healthy snack bars? Comment below if you know of any other healthy snack bars or if you have any questions about the bars you typically buy. Also, I would love to hear what your favorite flavors are and which brands you like best.

Here are the 5 Changes that will Drastically Improve Your Health

Improve Your Health starting right now by creating these 5 easy habits.

Are you ready to drastically improve your health? Lose weight and Look younger? Be full of energy and excited to take on your day?

I was really unhealthy. Fifty pounds overweight, tired all the time, acne, aches, and pains. I looked and felt awful. Today I feel younger, I look younger, I am at my ideal weight, and I always have plenty of energy to spare. If you would like to feel better, these 5 easy changes will help you to improve your health, starting right now.

I struggled with my weight for most of my life. I would read nutrition labels. I at the “healthy” boxed foods. I didn’t eat at McDonald’s. I didn’t drink soda. I always bought the “Healthy Whole Grains” and the non-dairy milk, and everything else that traditional advertising tells us is healthy. But I continued to gain weight and I continued to feel worse, both mentally and physically.

A Healthy Diet is not about going without. It is about Abundance. The most important tool in getting health is eating a lot of Real Food — You should never be hungry on a healthy diet. Fruits and Vegetables have far fewer calories than hamburgers and chips. Eat your fruits and vegetables in abundance, don’t skimp.

Then one day, I stumbled across a book at the library that changed my life. That book was Raw Family: A True Story of Awakening by Victoria Boutenko, and I learned the secret to health. I learned why I struggled with my weight and I started to change my diet that very day.

The change wasn’t always easy. But honestly, most of the time it was.

Once you get over the fear of change and you start to open your mind to the abundance of real food, you find that a healthy diet is full of variety.

Healthy food is vibrant and exciting.

Cooked and processed foods put us in a rut. They keep us stressed and depressed. We are too tired to try new things, but when you begin to provide your body with real nutrition, your whole outlook on life changes. You have more energy, you become more positive and you become happy.

Drastically improving your health can be easy if you just take it one small change at a time. Don’t try to take on too much at once. The five changes below will drastically improve your health if you implement all five of them. However, don’t feel like you have to do it all at once. The health changes that stick are the ones you can stick with every day.

It takes 21 days to create a habit, some habits take a bit longer (30-60 days), but they will become a habit if you just stick with it long enough. So start today, pick one change today and commit to it for the next 21 days.

Do it every day. Once it becomes routine, pick another one from the list and stick with it until it becomes a habit.

So Here are your 5 Easy Changes to Drastically Improve Your Health:

1. Trade Coffee for Green Tea or Herbal Tea

A little about the damages that coffee consumption causes.

Caffeine Disrupts Sleep — Caffeine disrupts sleep and leads to constant fatigue.

The Food and Beverage Industry spend billions of dollars to pay for studies that say coffee has health benefits. These studies are misleading and are released purely as advertising to sell their products.

Have you ever heard someone say “I’m not human without my coffee” or “My day hasn’t started until I have my coffee” or perhaps “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.” We have all heard and made jokes about coffee, but make no mistake coffee is no joke.

Coffee is a highly addictive drug, just like heroin or cocaine or sugar. The only real difference is that it is socially acceptable and it doesn’t kill you as quickly.

This is why we “Don’t Feel Human” without this toxic beverage.

Each time you consume a cup of coffee you become more addicted. This is why people who consume coffee daily go through withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop.

Headaches, irritability, muscle cramps, lethargy, flu-like symptoms, constipation, and depression are the common symptoms of withdrawal from coffee and any other caffeine-containing beverage. (Yes, soda and energy drinks are just as bad, actually, they are much, much worse for your health, so dump the soda and energy drinks as well.)

Here are just a few of the negative health effects of coffee:

1. 1. Coffee consumption has been linked to bladder cancer.
  2. Mothers who consume coffee during pregnancy increase the risk of their child developing leukemia.
  3. The caffeic acid in coffee causes damage to our DNA, with other factors this can lead to cancer cells being activated.
  4. Regular coffee consumption reduces fertility in women by 27%.
  5. Caffeine impairs glucose metabolism which is dangerous for Diabetics and may lead to Diabetes in non-diabetics.
  6. Caffeine raises blood pressure for at least 2-3 hours after consumption increasing the risk of heart attack.
  7. Coffee causes heartburn and indigestion.
  8. Coffee consumption can lead to insomnia.
  9. Women who consume coffee regularly are 70% more likely to develop incontinence.
  10. Coffee releases the stress hormone Cortisol, which makes you feel stressed and anxious and creates excess abdominal fat.

The long list of negative health effects strongly outweighs any potential positive health effects that the advertisers want you to believe. Any positive health effects you can get from drinking a cup of coffee can be achieved just as easily by eating fruits and vegetables, with no negative side effects.

So start weaning yourself off the coffee and sodas today. Go slow to reduce serious withdrawal symptoms, but start today.

The easiest way to quit coffee is to trade it for another soothing beverage, this way you only have to deal with the physical withdrawal at first, without having to also deal with the emotional attachment or the habit.

Coffee is a highly addictive drug with a long list of negative health effects. Learn more here:

Click To Tweet

Swap Coffee for:

Green Tea

Here is How Green Tea will Improve Your Health

Green Tea is a good option for transitioning away from caffeinated beverages. It offers a small amount of caffeine, which will help in managing withdrawal symptoms.

Green Tea is loaded with Antioxidants called catechins, which help our bodies to fight cellular damage and prevent cancer.

Green tea has been shown to improve blood flow and lower cholesterol, reducing your risk of heart-related ailments.

Green Tea is beneficial for Diabetics as it helps to better regulate blood sugar levels.

While there are no studies that conclusively show that Green Tea can prevent cancer, it has been shown that green tea supports healthy cell growth. Healthy cells lead to lower incidence of disease.

Green tea contains theanine, a natural chemical which has a calming effect on the body. This along with a relaxing ritual of sipping your tea slowly can lead to a more relaxed and calm state.

When you make Green Tea, do not use boiling water. Allow the water to cool some before steeping, to gain the most benefits. Boiling water can damage the catechins, lessening the antioxidant benefits of the tea. Instead, use water that is around 160 degrees for the best results. Additionally, adding lemon to the tea helps the body better absorb the catechins, while milk blocks absorption making the tea less effective.

Green Tea without sweeteners is best, but if you must sweeten your beverage, honey or maple syrup are the best choices for your health.

Green Tea can also be cold brewed. Place a tea bag in a glass jar or pitcher with up to 32 ounces of water and let steep in the fridge for 1 hour or more. This makes a much lighter beverage with no bitterness and a more floral or fruity flavor depending on the tea blend.

Green tea comes in hundreds of different blends and brands, some of my favorites are Prince of Peace Organic Jasmine Green Tea (tea bags – very affordable), Yogi Tea Chai Green (tea bags), and Wild Tea #2 Green Tea with Mint (loose leaf).

Herbal Tea

Swapping your daily coffee for herbal can drastically improve your health.

Herbal Teas are another excellent option to swap for coffee. Herbal Teas don’t actually contain tea leaves and are instead made from a blend of herbs and flowers.

There are hundreds of different varieties of herbal teas to choose from.

Herbal Teas have been used for centuries to treat everything from headaches and stomach discomfort to serious illnesses.

If you are looking for a boost of energy a few good options are:

Organic India Tulsi (Holy Basil) Lemon Ginger,

Organic India Gotu Kola Tulsi Tea,

Choice Organics Mental Focus,

and Be Resilient from Tea Tonix.

Yerba Mate

Here is How Yerba Mate can Improve Your Health.

Yerba Mate may be another good option for those looking for a bit more caffeine, without the jitters. Yerba mate contains B Vitamins and Vitamin C, as well as the minerals manganese, potassium, and zinc. It also contains the beneficial plant compounds Quercetin, Theobromine, and Theophylline.

The vitamin and mineral content of Yerba Mate give it a leg up over coffee since coffee strips the body of nutrients while Yerba provides the body with nutrients.

However, Yerba Mate does contain about 80 mg of caffeine per cup, which is significantly more than green tea at 15 mg. The caffeine content of Yerba Mate falls between Black Tea and Coffee, Coffee contains between 100 and 200 mg of caffeine depending on the variety and brew strength.

Since Yerba Mate contains vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants it is certainly a better choice than coffee for anyone in need of a bit more caffeine, especially those who regularly consume multiple cups of coffee per day.

However, some studies suggest that consuming too much Yerba Mate daily can raise your risk of some cancers, specifically respiratory cancers. These studies were based on individuals consuming a liter per day or more, which is a little over 4 cups per day.

Consuming 1 to 2 cups per day showed no negative health effects, but caution should be used because of the caffeine level.

Remember the ultimate goals is to get off the caffeine entirely so your adrenal glands can begin to heal. A good plan is to start with a higher caffeine tea (black or Yerba Mate) for 2 weeks, then step down to a lower caffeine option (Green Tea) and then to herbal teas that are caffeine free.

2. Take a Green Super Food Supplement

Green Superfood Supplements are a great way to drastically improve your health with a tiny amount of effort. Humans are naturally designed to eat pounds of leafy greens per day. But the industrialization and commercialization of our food supply has led us to a drastic change in our diets over the last few generations.

We have moved away from fresh fruits and vegetables and toward disease causing processed foods, meats, cheeses, and oils.

According to the CDC, only 1 in 10 Americans eats enough fruits and vegetables per day. And that is based on the government guidelines, which many nutrition and natural health experts agree is far too few, to begin with.

While there is no substitute for eating your fruits and vegetables, there is a benefit in supplementing to make up for lost nutrients from years of dietary neglect. That is why a green superfood powder can be so helpful.

Green Superfood Powder‘s are made from grasses, fruits, vegetables, and seeds, that have been freeze dried or dried at low heat to preserve the nutrients and then powdered for optimal digestion. A single scoop of powder contains 88% of your RDA of Vitamin K and 57% of your requirement for Vitamin C. It also contains a number of essential minerals, including Calcium, Iron, and Potassium.

Adding the Amazing Grass Superfood Powder to my morning routine when I first started to get healthy allowed me to easily quit the coffee habit. It also helped with fighting cravings as I moved from less healthy foods to a fruit based diet.

The grasses, fruits, and vegetables in Amazing Grass are also highly alkalizing. Cancer can only live in an acid state, so keeping your body in its proper alkaline state is the best tool you have in preventing cancer.

The powder can be added to a glass of water or to juice or a smoothie. Take it first thing in the morning if you are looking for that morning boost of energy. Or take it in the afternoon if you often find yourself in that mid-afternoon slump. Either way, it is a great way to supplement your diet while you are working towards more healthy eating habits. As always, real whole foods are best, but as we transition a green powder can help us on the path to a healthy diet.

Superfood Grasses can change your life. Find out how:

Click To Tweet

3. Green Smoothies

Green Smoothies are an excellent way to improve your health and make sure you are getting in enough fruits and vegetables every day.

Green Smoothies are an excellent way to get in several servings of fruit and vegetables in a delicious, quick and easy way. The average Green Smoothie recipe contains 2-4 servings of fruit and 1-2 cups of leafy greens and other vegetables.

Check out some of these recipes to get you started:

Pineapple Green Smoothie

Apple Ginger Green Smoothie

Pineapple Cilantro Green Smoothie

Even if you hate vegetables there is a green smoothie out there that you will like. Your taste buds will quickly acclimate to the “green-ness” and you will find yourself becoming more adventurous over time. And if you really can’t get into the “green-ness” right off the bat, start with just the fruits and add the greens after a few weeks on fruits.

Here are a few Green Smoothie Tips:

If you are brand new to green smoothies and you do not already like the taste of leafy greens, start small. It is perfectly okay to start with ¼ or ½ the amount of greens that any recipe calls for. Start your first week with ¼ then slowly, over a few weeks, keep adding a little bit more each day until you work your way up to the full amount.

Your taste buds will change the more healthy food you eat. Fruits and Vegetables you currently don’t like, you will come to love them over time. The cleaner your body becomes the more it will crave the healthy stuff.

Make sure you blend everything really well. If you don’t have a Vitamix or a Blendtec, then blend everything in stages. Start with water and leafy greens. Then add any nuts, dates or figs. Once those are nicely blended, then add your fruits and any other ingredients. This way the greens will get really well blended and you won’t end up with a yucky chunky smoothie.

Don’t be afraid to try something new. Just because you didn’t like something one way, doesn’t mean you won’t like it in a different recipe. And just because you didn’t like it a few months ago doesn’t mean your new cleaner body won’t like it more today.

Starting your day with a Green Smoothie will give you an energy boost that far surpasses that of coffee, and it lasts for hours with no crash.

Green Smoothies are also highly Alkalizing, which leads to better health overall. To learn more about the importance of an Alkaline Diet for your health, check out this article: Why Alkalize?

Foods that help Arthritis - Leafy Greens like Kale, Swiss Chard, Beet Greens, and Bok Choy. — Leafy Greens like Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard and Beet Greens are some of the most powerfully healing foods for any disease or discomfort.

Green Smoothies provide you with a great way to get in a variety of leafy green vegetables, from Kale to Beet Greens to Swiss Chard and more.

Kale is considered the World’s Healthiest food, let it improve your health.

Researchers have identified over 45 different flavonoids in kale. Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits.

Kale also contains Isothiocyanates (ITC’s), ITC’s help to regulate the bodies detoxification process. So daily consumption of leafy greens, especially kale, helps your body to release toxins that are stored in fat cells. This also leads to a reduction of fat cells, as they are no longer needed to store the toxins. That means you lose weight and you lose cellulite just by eating Kale (or drinking it in a tasty smoothie).

Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Beet Greens, Dandelion Greens, Arugula and more, there is a whole world of leafy greens, try them all.

Less than 10% of us eat enough fruits and vegetables. Here are 5 Easy Ways to Eat more.

Click To Tweet

4. Snack on Raw Nuts and Seeds

When we first move from high protein and high fat unhealthy foods like meat, dairy and eggs we need something to help calm the cravings. Nuts provide protein and fat to calm our nerves as we transition.

Substituting a handful of nuts or seeds for a junk food snack will help you lose weight and feel more satisfied. Flaxseeds, Walnuts, and Chia Seeds are all sources of Omega 3’s, which are often deficient in those eating a cooked foods diet. While Sunflower Seeds and Pumpkin Seeds are sources of Vitamin E which is important for healthy radiant skin.

The down side to Nuts and Seeds is they are acidic, so they should be eaten in moderation. Nuts and Seeds are designed to grow the next generation of food, they are not designed to be eaten, so as such they contain acids which protect them from being digested. They make a good transition food in moderation.

The Importance of Omega 3’s to Improving your Health

Besides Magnesium deficiency, Omega 3 deficiency may be the most pervasive deficiency in America.

Omega 3’s are found primarily in plant foods, with Flaxseeds being the most abundant source. Some fatty fish also contain Omega 3’s, however, the toxic heavy metal content of many fish along with the acidity of fish and all animal proteins makes fish a poor choice for Omega 3’s.

Omega 3’s should be consumed in a one to one ratio with Omega 6, but the average American diet is far out of balance. For every one part Omega 3 we typically consume 15 parts Omega 6.

This imbalance increases the risk of a huge list of diseases and disorders, including Heart Disease, Depression, BiPolar Disorder and other Mental Health Disorders, Hyperactivity and Autism Spectrum disorders and Arthritis, to name just a few.

Snacking on a handful of nuts and seeds daily can help you get this ratio back into balance, improve your health, and reduce your risk of disease while crowding out those unhealthy alternate choices.

Vitamin E is a Powerful Cancer Fighter that will Improve your Health

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that is essential for healthy skin and a beautiful complexion. It protects us against eye disorders, like cataracts, diabetes, environmental toxins, and neurological disorders, like Alzheimer’s.

Nuts and Seeds also contain bone-building minerals like calcium and other health promoting minerals like manganese, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, zinc and iron among others.

To get the healthy benefits from Nuts and Seeds they should only be consumed Raw. Roasted nuts and seeds contain Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance. Nuts and seeds also contain natural oils which become rancid when heated to high temperatures. Additionally, nuts and seeds which have been roasted are often coated with iodized salt or sugar, both of which are highly detrimental to your health.

Nuts and seeds are a quick and easy snack, and a small handful is enough to satisfy. Keeping a small container nearby of mixed nuts and seeds can keep you on track and away from unhealthy snacks when hunger hits.

Studies show that people who consume nuts and seeds daily consistently maintain a healthier weight than those who do not consume nuts regularly.

Health Tip: Nuts and Seeds make a healthy snack and promote weight loss. See 4 more tips:

Click To Tweet

5. Trade one Meal a Day for a Big Salad

Creating a daily Salad Habit will drastically improve your health. — Creating a daily salad habit will drastically improve your health.

Perhaps one of the best ways to get in your fruits and veggies and crowd out the junk is by eating a salad every day.

Make it a habit. Fruit Salad, or Green Salad or Vegetable Salad, you choose.

Even if you just start your meal with a salad. Just make it a habit. Everyday.

A salad will keep you hydrated which will naturally curb your snacking. Many of us snack or eat when we are thirsty rather than hungry because we don’t recognize the hunger as thirst.

Keeping your body well hydrated by eating plenty of hydrating foods will minimize these false
hunger urges.
Eating a green salad every day will get you closer to a pound of leafy greens per day. A pound of leafy greens per day is one of the best ways to keep away all disease.

A green salad plus a green smoothie every day can easily make up your pound of greens per day, getting you on your way to ultimate health. Plus a salad is big on volume and low on calories, so it will fill you up without adding to your calorie count too much.

Making a daily salad a habit also crowds out the bad. If you are full from a salad you will not have room for junk and you will naturally eat healthier later because you will be on a roll.

Remember that salad greens are low in calories, so a small bowl is not going to cut it. If a salad is a meal it should be in a large bowl, not a tiny little salad bowl.

Check out this article to learn how to make a salad that is satisfying and fills you up as a meal. Make sure you are using at least 4-5 cups of greens for a meal salad. And make it colorful and exciting by adding lots of bright colored fruits and vegetables.

Health Tip: Creating a daily salad habit will drastically improve your health. 4 more tips:

Click To Tweet

To Recap, Here are your 5 Easy Changes that will Drastically Improve your Health:

Trade Coffee for Green Tea, Herbal Tea or Yerba Mate
Take a Green Superfood Supplement to make up for years of dietary neglect while you transition
Get more Leafy Greens in and maximize nutrient absorption with Green Smoothies
Snack of Raw Nuts and Seeds, especially Omega 3 rich Flax Seeds and Chia Seeds
Create a daily salad habit – Fruit Salad, Vegetable Salad, Leafy Green Salad

So these are the 5 easy changes to drastically improve your health. Remember, you don’t have to try to tackle them all at once. Do what you can, but commit to at least one today. Commit to making it a habit, repeating it daily until it is just part of your normal routine. Once you have made one healthy change part of your daily routine, choose another healthy change to focus on next.

Want to help others take charge of their health today? Share this article, send a tweet, or click below to share on Facebook or Pinterest.

Check out these 5 easy changes to drastically improve your health.

Click To Tweet

Want to learn more?

What is Healthy? What Does healthy really mean? and what does a healthy diet look like?

What is Disease? Rethinking Health and Disease on a Macro Level

Why Alkalize?

Resources:

Conis, Elena. “Yerba Mate Tea: Drink in Moderation.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/16/health/he-nutrition16>.

Scott, Paula Spencer. “Green Tea Health Benefits.” WebMD. WebMD, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-of-green-tea>.

Boekema, PJ, M. Samsom, GP Van Berge Henegouwen, and AJ Smout. “Coffee and Gastrointestinal Function: Facts and Fiction. A Review.” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 1999. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10499460>.

Higdon, JV, and B. Frei. “Coffee and Health: A Review of Recent Human Research.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2006. Web. 19 July 2016. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16507475>.

WebMD. “Coffee.” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-980-coffee.aspx?activeingredientid=980>.

Boyle, Coleen H., Ph. D, Gertrud S. Berkowitz, Ph.D., Virginia A. LiVolsi, M.D., Sharon Ort, M.P.H., Maria J. Marino, M.D, Colin White, M.B., and Jennifer L. Kelsey, Ph. D. “Caffeine Consumption and Fibrocystic Breast Disease: A Case-Control Epidemiologic Study.” Oxford Journals – Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Oxford Journals – Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 21 Dec. 1983. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/72/5/1015.short>.

Burgos-Moron, E., JM Calderon-Montano, ML Orta, E. Guillen-Mancina, S. Mateos, and M. Lopez-Lazaro. “Cells Deficient in the Fanconi Anemia Protein FANCD2 Are Hypersensitive to the Cytotoxicity and DNA Damage Induced by Coffee and Caffeic Acid.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8 July 2016. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27399778>.

Moore, Latetia V., Ph.D., and Frances E. Thompson, Ph. D. “Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States, 2013.”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 July 2015. Web. 17 July 2016. <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6426a1.htm>.

Shocking Truth about Sleeping Pills + 4 effective alternatives

Everything You Need to Know about Sleeping Pills

plus Effective Natural Alternatives to these Deadly Pills

It was 1999 and she was only 41 the day she died. Sleeping pills.

Half a Million Deaths each year are caused by prescription sleep aids.

No, this isn’t a story of a celebrity overdose, or mixing pills with alcohol. This is a story of a sister, a mother, a woman who was happy and loved by her family. This is the story of taking a single prescribed dose of a supposedly safe sleeping medication and never waking up.

Brenda (name changed to protect the family) was a 41-year-old woman in the prime of her life, happy and outgoing, she generally had her life together.

She was not one to abuse medication, but on this fateful day, after a few weeks of sleepless nights, she chose to take a sleeping pill. A pill approved by our government, recommended by her doctor and believed to be safe.

And she never woke up.

Everyone assumed it was an overdose. After all, sleeping pills only kill if you abuse them, right?

We were all at a loss, we couldn’t believe that this woman who had never abused drugs in her life would overdose.

And we were right.

The coroner only found a single dose in her system. The sleeping pill had caused Brenda’s breathing to slow until she suffocated in her sleep. They called it a freak allergic reaction but ½ a million deaths are attributed to sleeping pills each year…

They called it a freak allergic reaction but ½ a million deaths are attributed to sleeping pills each year…

Click To Tweet

Counting Sheep

We all struggle to sleep from time to time, tossing and turning, watching the hours tick by. Perhaps it is an overactive mind, stress or depression that is keeping you awake. But as we search for a solution, many of us are tempted to pop a pill.

We assume that these Sleeping Pills are safe. After all, they have been approved by our government for sale.

We see them advertised twenty times a night while we watch our favorite programs.

But are they really safe? Or have we just been duped into believing they are harmless?

Sleeping Pills like Lunesta, Ambien, Sonata and Rozerem are all household names, thanks to the billions of dollars spent by Pharmaceutical companies on advertising campaigns.

These advertisements are designed to make the pills look appealing, with butterflies and soothing images. We are programmed to believe these pills are safe and the perfect solution to our restless minds and poor dietary choices.

Many of these ads even say that you will awake the next day rested and ready to tackle your day. Although the side effects listed clearly indicate the opposite is true.

They prey on the frustration you feel at being exhausted. They prey on the fact that we all have overactive minds from time to time. They want us to believe that this magical pill will solve our problems in the easiest way possible, with no negative ramifications.

Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. As with most advertisements, these pills are too good to be true. The Pharmacuetical company doesn’t care if you sleep well, they only care about your money.

A study by Dr. Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., of the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, California found that patients who had been prescribed a Prescription Sleep Aid were 4.56 times more likely to die in the next 2.5 years than patients who were not taking any sleep aids.

Patients who had been prescribed a Prescription Sleep Aid were 4.56 times more likely to die in the next 2.5 years

Click To Tweet

Taking Prescription Sleeping Pills also correlated to a 20% to 99% increase in Cancer depending on the brand:

“Most surprisingly, even those in the lowest third of sleeping pill consumption (0.4 to 18 doses per year) were 3.6 times more likely to die. Those in the middle third of consumption (18 to 132 doses per year) were 4.43 times more likely to die, and those in the top third (more than 132 doses per year) were 5.32 times more likely to die, suggesting a dose-response relationship.

Sleeping pill users in the middle third had a 20% increased risk of developing a new major cancer, whereas those in the top third of users had a 35% increased risk. Zolpidem users in the top third had a 28% increased risk of major cancer. Temazepam users in the middle third had a 44% increased risk of major cancer, and users in the top third had a 99% increased risk. ”

-Sleeping Pills May Dramatically Increase Death Rate – Daniel Weiss, Senior Editor Tuesday, March 6, 2012, http://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/sleeping-pills-may-dramatically-increase-death-rate

The Addiction and Dependence Cycle

Sleeping pills are physically and emotionally addictive. When they are used for an extended period of time your body will come to rely on the pills and you will not be able to fall asleep without them.

Sleeping pills can also cause an emotional addiction, where you begin to believe that you can not sleep without the pill. This emotional and physical addiction, as well as the bodies growing tolerance to the pills, can lead to a deadly overdose as you need to take more pills for them to be effective.

But even worse, rather than being able to just pop a pill once in a while to get caught up on sleep, sleeping pills actually disrupt your sleep patterns, leading to a circle of dependence and a state of chronic lack of sleep.

Although you sleep when you take a sleeping pill, you don’t gain the same health benefits as you do with natural sleep.

Benzodiazepines, the most common form of sleeping pills, disrupt both your REM (rapid eye movement) and reduce your slow wave sleep (deep sleep) which are the most important parts of the sleep cycle, the times where your body repairs itself, processes the events of the day, and files away your memories.

This disruption creates a negative sleep imbalance the next day, which leads to you taking the pills again. Your bodies natural rhythms become disrupted causing a negative spiral of dependence.

Sleep is one of the most important health parameters which is often taken for granted. Chronic lack of sleep can trigger hallucinations, depression, suicidal thoughts, impulsive behavior, and paranoia. Sleep deprivation also raises your risk of Heart Attack, Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and may even raise your risk of Cancer.

Sleeping Pills, due to their tendency to disrupt your sleep patterns, leading to a chronic lack of REM and Deep sleep raise your risk of all of these diseases.

In the short term, Sleeping pills supposed blessing also come with a tremendous list of negative side effects, including making you less alert the following day. Below is a list of just some of the negative side effects of the most popular brands of sleeping pills:

Side Effects of Prescription Sleeping Pills

Sleeping Pills Dangerous Side Effects — The Scary and Dangerous Side Effects of Sleeping Pills.

If you look back at that list, you will notice that there are many symptoms which indicate neural effects, or that the pills are changing or disrupting your brain. Since there is so much that we still don’t know about our most powerful and important organ, is it really worth the risk?

Especially when there are so many natural remedies, harmless behavioral changes, and easy dietary changes that we can make to reach the same end? Sure a pill may seem like a good idea in that moment of restless frustration, but the lifetime of dealing with the damage caused does not seem to me like a smart risk. What about you?

Better Alternatives to Sleeping Pills

So what are the better options? What can we do to get the sleep that is so necessary to a healthy, disease free life?

There are actually a lot of effective options from herbal supplements to eliminating sleep disrupting foods and beverages, to simple behavioral modifications that will all help you get the right amount of deep, restful and rejuvenating sleep. I’ll talk about all those in just a moment, but lets quickly take a look at what a good night’s sleep really is.

How much sleep should I be getting?

5.5 to 7.5 hours is the Ideal Amount of Sleep — How Much Sleep Should You Be Getting?

Several recent studies have put this number between 5.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep as the ideal amount for an adult. Sleeping more than 8 hours or less than 6 hours increases your overall risk of death. The farther from this range, the greater the risk of disease and overall mortality.

But oversleeping can actually be more detrimental than lack of sleep.

One recent study showed that those who on average slept 9 hours or more had a 30% higher mortality rate than those sleeping 6-8 hours. Those sleeping 5 hours or less had a 12% greater mortality rate.

Sleeping 9 or more hours increases your risk of early death 30%.

Click To Tweet

So if you have been trying to get that eight hours and your body says its time to get up after 6 hours, it’s time to listen to your body. If you are getting 6-8 hours of sleep but you are still feeling tired, it may be time to assess your diet. Your body is telling you that you are not giving it the correct fuel to get you through the day.

Check out Healthy Habits to learn about how to fuel your body for ultimate health and abundant energy.

So now that you know how much sleep you should be getting, let’s talk about how to get the best nights rest possible.

What’s keeping you up? Eliminating the cause of your insomnia will let you sleep restfully.

Let’s look at a few common things which keep us awake: caffeine, sugar, and stress. If you regularly have trouble sleeping, you may be consuming too much caffeine and sugar throughout the day or it may be stress or discontent that is keeping you awake.

Caffeine

Caffeine can stay in your system for as long as 28 hours after consumption and the average half-life of caffeine is 3-5 hours, with some people showing a half-life of up to 9 hours.

This means that if you are sensitive to caffeine, even a cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverage in the morning may be affecting your sleep that same night.

If you choose to consume caffeinated beverages and foods, avoid consuming them at least 6 hours before bedtime. This includes coffee, green and black teas, Yerba Mate, sodas, energy drinks, chocolate and all chocolate-containing foods and beverages, like hot cocoa, chocolate ice cream, chocolate yogurts, or chocolate cupcakes, etc.

Also, check any prescription or OTC medications as well as vitamins and diet pills or supplements which may also contain caffeine. Eliminate these pills immediately if possible, or if they are prescription medications check with your doctor for an alternative that does not contain caffeine. If you cannot eliminate these pills, try to take them as early in the day as possible.

Caffeine is a highly addictive drug and as such you will experience some symptoms of withdrawal if you go cold turkey. Cutting back gradually over 1 to 2 weeks may be a better long-term plan to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal include headaches, irritability, constipation, sleepiness, depression, muscle pain, cramping, stiffness and lack of concentration among others.

Sugar in all its sneaky forms

Sugar Cubes — Sugar in all forms disrupts the natural sleep hormone through blood sugar spikes.

If you ate anything today that wasn’t a raw fruit or vegetable in its most natural form, then you likely had some hidden sugar today. Sugar is everywhere in our food today thanks to some brilliant marketing by Sugar Industry Executives.

Everything from our breakfast cereal to our canned vegetables contains sugar, and sometimes it isn’t even obvious. There are at least 61 different names for sugar on nutrition labels that our government has approved so that companies can dupe us into thinking that a product does not contain sugar.

From sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup to barley malt, dextrose, maltose and rice syrup there are so many hidden sources of sugar that the average American consumes 66 pounds of hidden sugar a year.

There are at least 61 different names for sugar. On average, we consume 66 pounds of hidden sugar each year.

Click To Tweet

So what happens when you consume sugar close to bedtime? How does that affect your ability to fall asleep and to sleep well? You can see from the illustration that those late night snacks or your favorite dessert may just be the key to your insomnia.

The Sugar-Sleep Cycle — How Sugar Disrupts your Sleep

When you consume sugar, in any form, whether it is white sugar, wheat products or hidden sugar in any of it’s 61 fancy names, it causes a spike in your blood sugar. Eat this sugar within a few hours of bedtime and the sleep deficit cycle begins.

When your blood sugar spikes, the pancreas releases insulin to get the sugar quickly out of your blood stream.

Since most of us already have a strained pancreas due to the high levels of processed foods, sugars and starches we consume, our pancreas tends to overreact, dumping too much insulin. The insulin eats up all of the sugar and this now leads to a blood sugar crash.

This blood sugar crash alerts our adrenal glands that there is an emergency and now our adrenals pump Cortisol, the stress hormone, to counteract this dangerous low blood sugar situation. This release of Cortisol counteracts the natural melatonin, which our body naturally produces to allow us to fall asleep and sleep well.

The Blood Sugar Roller Coaster — The blood sugar roller coaster keeping you awake at night.

So now with this battle raging in our body, our sleep is disrupted and we toss and turn. But even worse, this nighttime blood sugar rollercoaster drains our adrenal glands, leading to adrenal fatigue.

Guess what? Adrenal fatigue is just another name for being tired all the time.

The adrenal glands are responsible for our energy levels. If they become drained they are unable to recover efficiently and therefore you become more tired.

So now we wake up exhausted and so we grab a cup of coffee in the morning, which further drains your adrenal glands. Then at lunch we grab a caffeinated beverage and causing more damage, further draining our energy.

It is a crazy cycle which can only be broken by recognizing the cycle and jumping off the wheel. Break up with the sugar and the caffeinated beverages and you will be tired for a few days, but after a short time, your adrenals will repair themselves. You will begin to experience restful and restorative sleep and you will wonder how you ever ended up on this crazy train in the first place.

Stress – The Ultimate Insomnia Battle

Good Morning. Let the Stress Begin. — Stress in a common cause of insomnia.

We all experience stress from time to time in our life. Some levels of stress are healthy and can be beneficial. But when stress is keeping you awake at night, something needs to be done. The kind of stress that keeps you up at night is also the kind of stress that shortens your life.

While no one particularly likes to hear this, the best way to handle stress is to turn and face what is bothering you head on. We often allow ourselves to become stressed over small things, which in our minds manifest into huge worries or problems.

So the first step to tackling stress is to truly identify what it is you are dealing with. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down exactly what is stressing you out. Sometimes getting the stress down on paper makes it feel that much more manageable and really lets you see how insignificant this worry is in the grand scheme of your life.

But sometimes there are big things that are stressing you out. Perhaps the illness of a loved one, a recently lost job or a difficult financial situation. These legitimate stresses will need to be dealt with if you are to regain your sleep and your sanity and save your health.

The longer you take to act on these stressful situations the bigger the problem becomes. So if you are facing a stressful situation that needs a resolution, right now is the time to come up with a plan.

Take that same notebook paper and write down at least 3 things that would make the situation better. It doesn’t matter if the first 3 things that you write down are completely ridiculous or not achievable, just write them down and get the ball rolling.

Continue to focus on any solutions no matter how far fetched until you come across something that is an action that you can take now, or tomorrow morning to make a difference. Even if this doesn’t fix the problem, you will still be lessening your stress just by taking action.

Here are a few other suggestions for reducing stress:

Get some exercise – it doesn’t have to be crazy, just go for a walk around the block.
Turn off all Technology – at least an hour before bedtime – that means TV, Video Games, your phone, all of it. Give yourself time to disconnect completely from all programming and distractions.
Take that hour and meditate or just sit and allow yourself to think. (This will be scary at first for some of us.)
Release the guilt from your inner conversation- you are only human, you are doing the best you can do, even if you only gave 40% today, that was still your best for today. It’s okay not to be perfect, its okay to not always be 100%, stop beating yourself up.
Grab a notebook and brain dump- just start writing everything you are thinking about, it could be a to-do list for tomorrow, or something that is bothering you, or something that made you angry or sad, just get it out. Release it to the atmosphere and let it be swept away.
Tell your subconscious to solve the problem. Write down on a card or a piece of scratch “I will awake tomorrow morning, rested and refreshed with the answer to (your problem). I give myself permission to sleep restfully so I may best solve this problem.” Repeat this to yourself 3 times before bed. (This is a Think a Grow Rich Secret)

What to do if you still can’t sleep?

Some days we still need a little bit of help . Maybe our diet wasn’t the best, maybe we are feeling stressed or we are just struggling to put our minds to rest. There are natural alternatives to the dangerous sleeping pills that the pharmaceutical companies want to get you hooked on. From Herbal Teas to Herbal Pills there are a number of safe alternatives to turn to when you need it most.

Here are a few of my favorites:

100% Natural and Side Effect Free Herbal Sleeping Pill

Natural Alternative to Sleeping Pills — Natural Herbal Alternative to Dangerous Prescription Sleeping Pills. Far more effective and no negative side effects.

Bio Terra Herbs offers a completely natural and plant based Sleeping Pill alternative called Sleep…Snooze and it really works. All BioTerra Herbs dietary supplements are vegan, gluten-free, Non-GMO Project Verified and 100% natural.

The Sleep…Snooze herbal formula contains four powerful herbs which help you to gently and naturally fall asleep: Jujube, Chinese Salvia , Schisandra, and Turmeric.
Sleep…Snooze has no adverse side effects and will not leave you feeling drugged or dull the next day.

I personally use these pills when I find myself counting sheep and I am always amazed at how great I feel the next day. I typically drift off to sleep within ten to twenty minutes and sleep soundlessly and happily dreaming throughout the night.

When I wake in the morning, there is no grogginess or disorientation. My only complaint about this product is that it is not Certified Organic, but the company did say that they will work toward their organic certifications, so hopefully they will be able to bring a certified organic version to the market soon.

Sleep Well Tea, Supplement and Essential Oil Pack

Sleep Well Herbal Supplement — Sleep Well contains an Herbal Tea, Magnesium Supplement and two essential oil blends which promote healthy sleep and relaxation.

GoDesana offers a Sleep Well Pack which includes their Soothe the Soul Herbal Tea, a liquid Magnesium supplement and two essential oil blends that promote relaxation and stress relief. The Soothe the Soul Herbal Tea includes Rooibos Red Tea, which is a caffeine-free tea that is rich in minerals and contains more antioxidants than green tea. It also contains a number of herbs that relax and calm the body and mind and promote restful sleep including Gotu Kola, Lemon Balm, and Passion Flower. It also includes Licorice Root which has been shown to repair adrenal fatigue leading to both a better night’s rest and more energy the following day.

The Soothe the Soul Herbal Tea includes Rooibos Red Tea, which is a caffeine-free tea that is rich in minerals and contains more antioxidants than green tea. It also contains a number of herbs that relax and calm the body and mind and promote restful sleep including Gotu Kola, Lemon Balm, and Passion Flower. It also includes Licorice Root which has been shown to repair adrenal fatigue leading to both a better night’s rest and more energy the following day.

It also contains a number of herbs that relax and calm the body and mind and promote restful sleep including Gotu Kola, Lemon Balm, and Passion Flower. It also includes Licorice Root which has been shown to repair adrenal fatigue leading to both a better night’s rest and more energy the following day.

Soothe the Soul also includes Licorice Root which has the ability to repair adrenal fatigue leading to both a better night’s rest and more energy the following day.

Magnesium is essential to restful sleep, yet it is one of the most common deficiencies for Americans. Magnesium deficiency can lead to all of these health issues: Depression, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ADHD, Epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, Sleep problems, Migraines, Cluster Headaches, Osteoporosis, Premenstrual Syndrome, Chest Pain (Angina), Cardiac Arrhythmia, Coronary Artery Disease and Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, Type II Diabetes and Asthma.

The Sleep Well Pack also includes two essential oil blends to promote relaxation and restful sleep Lavender Chamomile and Still. Lavender Chamomile is a relaxing, calming, and soothing blend which is used for calming stress, tension, anxiety, and treating insomnia. Still can help relax and quiet the mind, body, and spirit while encouraging more restful sleep.

Soothing Teas to Help You Sleep Better

Traditional Medicinals offers a wonderfully soothing organic Lavender and Chamomile Tea which is great for just before bed or anytime you are feeling stressed. This tea will not put you to sleep but it will help you calm your nerves and conquer the stress that may be keeping you awake.

Tulsi or Holy Basil has been used for thousands of years to combat stress and strengthen the immune system. Organic India offers a Tulsi Tea with a blend of three varietals of Holy Basil for a powerful stress relieving and naturally energizing tea. Holy Basil is also a powerful adaptogen, meaning it will increase the body’s ability to resist the damaging effects of stress and promote or restore normal physiological functioning.

These supplements are all meant to help treat insomnia in the short term. There is no substitute for a healthy diet if you want to live a long and healthy life, free of pain, disease and depression. Make today the day you decide to dump the science projects and get back to real food.

Raw, Whole Food, Plant-Based Nutrition can heal your body and your soul. Choose to love yourself today. If you don’t know where to start, check out my Recipes or the Healthy Habits section for everything you need to know to become a healthy, happy and balanced human today. I would love to hear your thoughts, please comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or tips to offer.

Resources:

“Side Effects of Sleeping Pills: Common and Potentially Harmful Side Effects.” WebMD. Ed. Joseph Goldberg, M.D. WebMD, 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/understanding-the-side-effects-of-sleeping-pills>.

“U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” Side Effects of Sleep Drugs. FDA.gov, n.d. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm107757.htm>.

Kripike, M.D., Daniel F. “Sleeping Pills Could Shorten Your Life: Chapter 1 of The Dark Side of Sleeping Pills, an Ebook by Daniel F. Kripke, M.D.”Sleeping Pills Could Shorten Your Life: Chapter 1 of The Dark Side of Sleeping Pills, an Ebook by Daniel F. Kripke, M.D. N.p., Mar. 2013. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://darksideofsleepingpills.com/>.

Alexander, Ruth. “Why a Long Night’s Sleep May Be Bad for You.” BBC News. BBC News, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31928434>.

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research. “Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance: Formulations for Military Operations.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. NCBI – NIH.gov, 2001. Web. 4 June 2016. <https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/caffeine#section=Metabolism-Metabolites>.

PubChem. “Caffeine.” PubChem. PubChem – National Institute of Health, 16 Sept. 2004. Web. 4 June 2016. <https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/caffeine#section=Metabolism-Metabolites>.

Weiss, Daniel. “Sleeping Pills May Dramatically Increase Death Rate.”Pharmacy Times. N.p., 6 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/sleeping-pills-may-dramatically-increase-death-rate>.

Devi, M.D., Gayatri. “This Is Your Brain on Drugs: The Effect of Sleeping Pills.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 17 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 June 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gayatri-devi-md/this-is-your-brain-on-dru_b_439577.html>.

The Top 5 Health Documentaries that will Change Your Life!

There are a number of health documentaries that have come out in the last decade which have shed a light on our broken food system. They show how corporations are putting their profits over our health. These health documentaries show how we have been misled in the name of greater profits. Both by the corporations and the political system that supports them. They prove that Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Agro and Big Chemical are making us Fat and Sick and our government is subsidizing the process.

This may sound crazy and like a big conspiracy theory, but truth is often stranger than fiction. These 5 health documentaries will open your eyes to the ways in which our food system is designed to make us sick. As well as how our medical system is designed to keep us sick.

If you are trying to lose weight, heal from disease, regain your health, or just live a healthier and happier life, then I highly recommend that you watch all of these films. Once you are done, share them with everyone you care about. Because knowledge is power and this knowledge will save your life.

Life Changing Health Documentaries #1

Food Matters – A Health Documentary for anyone who wants to know the secret to a long, healthy and disease free life.

Health Documentaries - Food Matters: Let Food Be Thy Medicine — ^{Pills and Chemo and expensive surgeries make a lot of money for Doctors, Hospitals, and Pharmaceutical companies, but they rarely, if ever solve the health issue long term. It’s time we rethink medicine. Prevention is the only cure. Food is Medicine. Learn how to take your health back through easy dietary changes that will save your life in this amazing health documentary.}

Food Matters is one of the most powerful documentaries I have ever seen. I truly believe that every single person should watch this film and then watch it again. If you care at all about your health you need to see this film today.

Food Matters is all about what has gone wrong in our medical system. It explains the power of food to heal. It also explains why our current medical system is not designed for people to get well. On the contrary, it is designed to be profitable. Healthy people are not profitable for the medical industry.

Hear from the experts

Food Matters features commentary from scientists, doctors, and raw food experts who have helped their patients heal from terrible diseases using nutrition rather than poisons, radiation, and knives.

This film proves how time and time again, information that can save our lives is withheld or buried. All by companies who are making billions of dollars keeping us on the “traditional” medicine carousel.

The Price of Prescription Drugs is our Health

These prescription medications often have side effects that are severe and require additional medications to counteract these side effects. The Pharmaceutical Companies have convinced us that this is the price of health. But what if there was a better way? What if there was a cheaper and more effective way to reverse disease? Would they tell us, even if it meant them losing billions of dollars?

Well, there is a better way, and it is cheaper and more effective. And big surprise, Big Pharma is fighting with everything they have to bury it. Food Matters is an eye-opening documentary that every human being should watch if they want to live a long and healthy life and stop being a guinea pig for the big Pharma profit machine.

Life Changing Health Documentaries #2

Forks over Knives – A Health Documentary for anyone who has Heart Disease or wants to avoid Heart Disease.

Health Documentaries - Forks Over Knives — ^{It’s time to solve our diseases with our fork and our plate, not a surgeon’s scalpel and pills. Learn how with this groundbreaking heath documentary from the authors of the China Study.}

Despite the fact that medical technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 5 decades disease in America has grown at a staggering rate. Even though we are spending billions of dollars a year on our medical industry, we keep getting sicker. Would you like to know why?

Forks over Knives will answer all of your questions. Our medical Doctors spend little to no time learning about nutrition. Our solutions for dealing with any disease are cut it out, burn it out, poison it or just learn to live with it. Every solution is a pill for this and then three more pills to fight the side effects of the first pill. But none of this is necessary.

If you want to get off the medication carousel, or never get on it in the first place and get back your health, start today by watching Forks over Knives.

Learn why our current menu is making us sick. Our medical industry is making us sicker. And what you can do right now, to reverse disease, and cut your risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. But most importantly, be around for your family and friends and not be a burden to them as you get older.

Life Changing Health Documentaries #3

Fed Up – A Health Documentary for those who struggle with their weight or who have children or grandchildren who are overweight or obese.

Health Documentaries - Fed Up — ^{Overweight and can’t understand why? This Health Documentary will explain why. We have been taught our whole lives to believe that poisons are food, we teach our children, at home, on TV, and in school, to eat science projects. Then when they become fat we shame them and we shame ourselves. It’s time to learn the truth with this eye-opening documentary.}

Do you struggle to lose weight even though you eat “Healthy”? Do you have children or grandchildren who are overweight or obese? Are you frustrated because even though you do everything right your weight continues to rise? Or worse, roller coaster?

Do you read labels and buy “Heart Healthy” and “Whole Grain” Foods? Or “Diet” foods but still continue to struggle?

If so, Fed Up is the documentary you need to watch today. Fed Up is the story of obesity in our country. It is the story of how our Government and Food Manufacturers have knowingly built a system to keep you fat, unhealthy and misinformed.

Our government is subsidizing obesity.

If you watch this film, you will learn the hidden dangers in most processed food. This health documentary will teach you why counting calories will not help you lose weight at all.

But most importantly, you will learn that it is NOT your Fault. The deck is stacked against us. Our children are being set up for obesity in school, just as we were. The messages are reinforced in their afternoon cartoons, and as you walk through the grocery store, or stand in line to check out.

We have all been misled and programmed to think that the products we are being sold are healthy. They are not. You have been set up to fail. You are not lazy. It’s not because you don’t exercise enough. It is because you have been misled.

Life Changing Health Documentaries #4

Prescription Thugs – A Health Documentary for Anyone Who has Taken Prescription Medications or Knows Anyone Who is on Prescription Medications.

Health Documentaries - Prescription Thugs - How the Pharmaceutical Industry is keeping us sick in the name of profits. — ^{This Health Documentary will show you just how the Pharmaceutical companies are keeping us sick in the name of profits, plus how they started the Opioid epidemic knowingly and intentionally.}

Have you ever watched a drug commercial and wondered whether all the side effects are worth the pill?

Today’s medications, rather than eliminating disease, are somehow increasing the prevalence of disease.

Bi-Polar Disorder used to be an incredibly rare disorder. However, in the last 15 years, the diagnosis of Bi-Polar Disorder has increased 5000%. Would you like to know why?

Prescription Thugs will give you the answer.

We are a nation of pill poppers, convinced that the magic elixir of health can be distilled into a tiny convenient pill.

70% of Americans currently take at least one prescription medication. More than 50% of us are on more than one. And many of those people are taking as many as 5 to 10 different prescriptions. Are you among this majority?

If you or someone you love is currently on Prescription medications you owe it to yourself to watch Prescription Thugs. It is time for us to understand the system that is putting profit over health. Educate yourself, because the Pharmaceutical companies aren’t offering the whole story.

Pills are Poison designed to keep you sick.

Every 19 Minutes someone in America dies from medically prescribed drugs. Either by overdose, side effects or by mixing two or more prescriptions that cause a negative reaction. Yet Pharmaceutical Companies have incredibly lenient standards for getting their drugs on the market.

Did you know that the only requirement to get a drug approved by the FDA is to show 2 positive studies? Yup. A pharmaceutical company only needs to show 2 studies showing that their drug works better than a placebo. The drug does not have to work better than other drugs on the market. Only better than a Placebo.

Even more alarming, they can throw out any study that does not show a positive result. They can just present the two studies that show a positive result. This means that if they run 50 studies, and 48 of those studies show that this drug kills people, but 2 show that it is slightly more helpful than a sugar pill, that pill will get a stamp of approval from the FDA.

So ask yourself, is that pill really safe? Or is it just profitable? Arm yourself with the truth by watching Prescription Thugs today, the life you save may be your own.

Life Changing Health Documentaries #5

The Human Experiment – A Health Documentary that Every Person in the World Must See.

Health Documentaries - The Human Experiment - Toxic Chemicals in our Environment are making us very sick. — ^{This Health Documentary will show you how chemical companies skirt the law, with the help of our politicians. Keeping toxic disease causing chemicals on the market and polluting our environment.}

7.3 Million American couples have trouble conceiving or carrying to term. Women under 25 have seen the greatest increase – a 49% increase since 1988.

Many of these women are young and healthy, eat well, exercise and are not overweight. So what is going on here? Could the chemicals we use every day be a part of the problem?

The Human Experiment investigates this theory

Since 1975 Breast Cancer rates have risen more than 30% in women and men.

In 1999 1 in 500 kids had Autism, today 1 in 88 kids have autism.

Over the past 45 years we have seen tremendous increases in disease rates:

Childhood Brain Cancer has increased 38%

Asthma has increased 80%

Leukemia in Children has increased 74%

Early Onset Puberty has increased 55%

ADHD has increased 53%

In this same time period, chemical use has gone up 2000%.

So who is looking out for our safety? Watch The Human Experiment today to see how you and your family have become lab rats in Big Chemicals sick game.

So these are your top 5 Health Documentaries to watch today to significantly improve your health. The information you learn in these health documentaries will save your life and the life of those you love. So watch them today and share them with everyone you love. Because together we can stop the corruption and take back our health.

The Top 5 Health Documentaries:

Once you have watched these Health Documentaries you may be interested in learning more about nutrition and disease. So check out these articles for more information to get you started:

Powerful Nutrition Books that will change your life

5 Changes that Will Drastically Improve Your Health

The Top 5 Raw Food Books for Beginners

or check out some Healthy Recipes!

Why I chose a Raw Foods Diet to heal

Most Disease is just our body trying to survive us poisoning ourselves

As Americans, we have spent most of our lives eating the Standard American diet of meat, cheese and heavily cooked vegetables. This makes it hard to imagine eating only raw plant based foods. As such, many people feel overwhelmed just at the idea of change.

Accomplishing the transition to a healthy diet feels like such a drastic change that most people become overwhelmed at the thought of it. Often quitting before they even begin and often letting their health suffer instead. But it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. We don’t need to live in fear of disease.

Why Choose Raw Food?

I will start by saying that my personal journey to a raw foods centered diet did not happen overnight. Most people who transition to a Raw Foods centered diet, do so gradually, as they become more educated about nutrition and food choices. However there are many people, particularly those who are already sick, who choose to jump right in to Raw Foods 100% from the start.

I had been a vegetarian for a large part of my life, since 1992, but by no means a healthy eater. For most of my Vegetarian life my diet focused on Bread, Pasta and Cheese with the occasional Veggie “meat” convenience foods.

In 2011 I transition to a Vegan diet, but this was not much of an improvement to my diet. I simply swapped the Cows Milk cheese for oil based “Vegan” Cheeses and the junk food for Vegan versions.

However I did feel a dramatic benefit from just removing dairy from my diet. This benefit was reinforced if I accidentally ate something without realizing it had dairy in it. I felt so sick after eating just these tiny amounts of dairy that it really reinforced how much impact just one wrong food can cause on draining our health away.

However, my Vegan diet was still very Starch heavy, cooked food centered and included very little fresh fruit. I was still tired all the time, depressed and feeling and looking old well before my time.

So I began researching nutrition more heavily. Nutrition has interested me since I first read the books Diet for a New America and Never Be Sick Again shortly after college. So I knew there was a better way of living, I just had to find it. This research led me eventually to the Raw Food, Fruit Centered Diet, and while the transition was not always smooth, I can say confidently that it was worth every moment.

Benefits of Raw Food and Why I choose Raw Food still today

Here are some of the benefits that I have seen from my transition to a Raw foods diet.

I Lost 40 lbs over the course of about 6- 7 months, effortlessly, and without ever feeling hungry or deprived and without joining a gym. (My primary exercise comes from walks and hikes with my dogs and gardening.)
My physical endurance has increased astronomically, I feel like an athlete now, something I have never felt in my life.
My self confidence is greatly improved. I wake up happy, grateful, joyful and full of energy.
Cavities in my teeth have begun to repair themselves.
My joints no longer ache and I recover quickly from strenuous hikes, bike rides and other exercise.
My complexion has cleared up, my skin looks brighter and younger and my hair is extremely long, shiny and healthy.
I have abundant energy from morning to night.
My sleep has improved drastically. I no longer have insomnia or restless nights. Waking I spring from the bed ready to tackle the day.

The list of changes could cover pages so I will stop here, but overall I feel amazing and that is what keeps me motivated. That and the food is delicious and I can eat as much as I want.

What has kept me on the Raw Foods diet is realizing just how bad I feel when I eat cooked and processed foods. It took several months to detox all of the junk, but now I can’t believe that I let myself go on feeling so tired all the time.

You aren't "getting sick" you are being poisoned.

The craziest part though, at the time I was eating cooked foods, wheat and cheese, I had no idea how bad I felt. It wasn’t until I started eating a natural biologically appropriate human diet and started to feel really good that I even realized that I was feeling so bad before. If you have never felt this good before you have nothing to compare it to.

If you have eaten cooked foods and science projects your whole life, like I had, you have no experience of what eating vibrant foods feels like. You have no idea how much you are actually suffering. So it wasn’t until I started nourishing my body that I truly understood how weak and sick I was. I just thought it was normal to feel that way.

So this is Why I choose Raw Foods. I can not emphasize how important real food is to our health. Try Real Raw Food for just 30 days, I can say with the utmost confidence, you will feel better, you will look better and you will live longer. You will never want to go back to eating science projects again.

My Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners

As a beginner to Raw Foods it is important to have a few references to both keep you motivated and to give you new recipes to try so you don’t get bored or stuck in a rut. So I am providing this list of the Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners to help you get started. Each of these books I have personally read and used as I started out in my Raw Food Journey. Each of these books offers something different, some are predominantly recipe based and other are more about the science and results behind a Raw Foods Diet. I hope you find these books as helpful as I did on your own personal Raw Foods journey. So here are my personal recommendations:

#1 Twelve Steps to Raw Foods

The first book I recommend is 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko. Victoria is probably one of the most well known and respected raw food advocates in the raw food community. She has authored several books on the subjects of raw food and green smoothie nutrition.
12 Steps to Raw Foods – How to End your dependency on Cooked Food is not only an excellent primer on the merits of the Raw food diet from an expert in her field. It is also a highly motivational book. One which I continue to reread any time I am feeling a little weak or just need a mental boost.

In this book, Victoria talks about her own personal journey from debilitating illness to excellent health. Victoria is a mother of three and in the early nineties, her husband was deathly ill, her young son had just been diagnosed with Juvenile Type 1 Diabetes, her daughter had severe Asthma and Allergies and Victoria herself had just been diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia, the same disease which killed her father. The doctors that she spoke with offered her no answers and so Victoria went on a crusade to find the answers and save her family.

In 12 Steps to Raw Foods – How to End your dependency on Cooked Food, Victoria shares those answers in a warm and helpful way. There is no preaching and Victoria’s writing can really take the stress out of the health problems you are facing. So for this reason 12 Steps to Raw Foods is my number one of the Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners.

#2 Green for Life

The second book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for beginners list is also by Victoria Boutenko. Green For Life is the book that launched the Green Smoothie revolution that has become so popular today.

In Green For Life, Victoria documents the many and varied health benefits that come from eating abundant leafy green vegetables. She documents the science behind this current fad and explains how to take advantage of this often undervalued food group.

Green For Life explains not only the why but the how of Green Smoothie Nutrition with easy recipes, stories from those who have regained their health and even a scientific study. Green For Life is written in Victoria’s easy to read and comforting style which makes it another great book for beginners in raw food nutrition.

The comforting style combined with strong scientific evidence and testimonials make this an easy read with practical advice that any beginner can use right away. So Green For Life is number two on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list.

#3 Ani’s Raw Food Detox

The biggest hurdle for most beginners to Raw food is the first few weeks of grocery shopping and meal planning.

That is where Ani’s Raw Food Detox comes in. Ani’s Raw Food Detox is a 15 day detox plan which includes meal plans, grocery lists and some great tips for boosting your metabolism and helping your body shed pounds and toxins quickly and painlessly.

This book will set you up for success on your Raw food journey for the long haul. Each week Ani introduces new staples into your pantry and gives you meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks that you will continue to enjoy well after the first 15 days.

The recipes are quick and simple, with minimal food preparation skills necessary and there is enough balance of heavy nut based meals and lighter fruit based meals to help minimize cravings that are so prevalent in the first few months of transitioning to raw foods.

So for being a great 15 day get you started plan, Ani’s Raw Food Detox is number three on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list.

#4 Easy, Affordable Raw

Another hurdle that many people deal with when first starting out on a raw food diet is budget. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the decadent recipes and expensive ingredients. And to feel like you just can’t afford to eat raw. So the next book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list is Easy, Affordable Raw – How to Go Raw on $10 a Day, because everyone should be able to afford nutritious food.

Easy, Affordable Raw – How to Go Raw on $10 a Day shows you how you can eat amazing nutrition packed raw food all day long for less then the cost of 2 fast food meals a day.

The recipes in Easy, Affordable Raw are not only affordable but they are delicious and attainable. Most of the ingredients can easily be found at your average grocery store, no trip to the health food store required.

All of the recipes in Easy, Affordable Raw are also great for beginners as they don’t include a lot of fancy techniques or odd ingredients. So for making Raw food attainable by anyone, no matter the age, budget, kitchen skills or location, Easy, Affordable Raw is number four on my list of Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners.

#5 Raw Energy

As a new Raw Foodist having some tasty snacks on hand is key to fighting those detox cravings. So the last book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list is Raw Energy – 124 Raw Food Recipes for Energy Bars, Smoothies and Other Snacks to Supercharge your Body.

Raw Energy has an amazing array of cookies, chips, energy bites, bars and smoothies that will satisfy any craving. Most of the recipes are easy to make, but there are also some unique recipes which will stretch your imagination of what raw food can be.

The ingredients in most of the recipes are typical grocery store fare so you don’t need to bend your budget or go searching for obscure ingredients. It is a good way to get to know some unique ingredients without having to spend a fortune to make recipes.

I hope that you found my list of the Top Five Raw Food Recipe Books helpful. If you want to learn more about a Raw food Lifestyle and its health benefits check out Healthy Habits. You can also check out my Raw Food recipes.

Alkaline Forming Foods

List of Alkaline Forming Foods

Alkaline forming foods are foods which bring your body into a more alkaline state. You can learn about the importance of alkaline foods by reading Why Alkalize?

Alkaline foods are commonly grouped into three levels high alkaline forming, medium alkaline forming and low alkaline forming.

If you are currently in an acidic or disease state, eating abundant amounts of high alkaline foods can help bring your system back into balance.

The human diet should include predominantly alkaline foods and very little acid forming foods to stay at optimum health. An ideal healthy diet will consist of no high acid forming foods, as these foods are highly detrimental to the human body and a minimal amount of low and medium acid foods.

While it is possible to be too alkaline and being too alkaline can lead to Dis-ease, this is exceedingly rare. It is far more likely to become ill from chronic acidosis from eating too many acid forming foods. When you are done here check out this list of Acid Forming Foods as well.

All fruits and vegetables are raw unless otherwise noted.

Alkaline Forming Foods

High Alkaline

Asparagus
Sweet Potato (Batata , Kumara)(Raw/Cooked)
Blackberries
Raspberries
Strawberries
Burdock Root
Cantaloupe
Celery
Chestnuts
Chicory
Limes
Mandarin Oranges
Tangerines
Collard Greens
Horseradish (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Daikon Radish
Dulse (Seaweed)
Endive
Fennel
Lemon Juice
Lime Juice
Honeydew Melon
Kiwi Fruit
Mangos
Papayas
Paw Paw
Persimmon
Pineapple
Plaintains
Quince
Watermelon
Paprika
Hijiki (Seaweed)
Jalapeno Peppers (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Kabocha Squash
Kale
Kelp (Seaweed)
Kombu (Seaweed)
Kohlrabi
Chicory (Lettuce)
Mustard Greens (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Lotus Root
Pumpkin Seeds
Onions (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Parsley (mild irritant)
Parsnips
Radishes
Rutabaga
Winter Squash
Umeboshi Vinegar (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Yams

Medium Alkaline

Agave Nectar (Raw Version)
Apple Cider
Apple Cider Vinegar (Irritant – not recommended to eat)
Apples (Raw and Baked)
Applesauce
Apricots
Artichokes
Jerusalem Artichokes
Arugula (mild irritant)
Pumpkin
Eggplant (Aubergine)
Avocado
Potato, baked, skin on (plain)
Bananas
Basil
Bean Sprouts
Lentils
Green beans (young, without formed beans)
Beets
Bell Pepper (Red, Yellow, Green)
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Coconut Milk (Can or Carton)
Grapefruit Juice
Pineapple Juice
Black Pepper
Bok Choy
Borscht
Broccoli
Cabbage (Chinese, red, white, savoy)
Cardamom
Cashews
Cashew Butter
Cassava
Cauliflower
Celery Root
Chayote
Chayote Root
Cherries
Cilantro (Chinese Parsley, Coriander Leaf)
Cinnamon
Grapefruit
Lemons
Oranges
Tangelos
Adobo Sauce
Hot Sauce
Shoyu/Nama Shoyu (Type of Soy Sauce)
Tamari (Type of Soy Sauce)
Wasabi
Zucchini (Courgette)
Cumin Seed
Currants
Dandelion Greens
Dill Pickles (made with Apple Cider Vinegar)
Dill Weed
Raisins (Sultanas)
Fennel Seeds
Grapes
Lychees
Olives, green
Passionfruit
Peaches
Pears
Garlic
Green Onions
Basil
Marjoram
Oregano
Tarragon
Thyme
Watercress
Hubbard Squash
Iceberg Lettuce
Jicama
Kimchi
Sauerkraut (Raw or homemade)
Arugula
Cos Lettuce
Radicchio
Red Leaf Lettuce
Rocket (Lettuce)
Romaine
Salad Greens (mixed baby green or spring mix)
Leeks
Lentils
Lychee
Molasses
Okra
Green Onions
Peaches
Pears
Pumpkin
Taro Root
Yuca Root
Agar (Seaweed)
Summer Squash
Swedes
Treacle
Turnip Greens
Turnips
Cassava
Water Chestnuts

Low Alkaline

Almond Butter
Almond Flour
Almond Milk
Almonds
Apple Juice
Applesauce, sweetened
Avocado Oil
Bay Leaf
Edamame
Snow Peas
Grape Juice
Orange Juice
Pear Juice
Green Tea
Herbal Tea (most)
Evian Bottled Water
Fiji Bottled Water
Brussels Sprouts
Ghee (Clarified Butter)
Napa cabbage
Carrots (Organic Only – Commercial Carrots are Acidic)
Cayenne Pepper
Celery Seeds
Chamomile Tea
Chia Seeds
Chili Paste
Coconut Oil
Coconuts
Gomashio (With Sea Salt)
Red Curry Paste
Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
Corriander Seeds
Cucumber
Dill Seeds
Flaxseed Oil
Macadamia Oil
Olive Oil
Flaxseeds
Flaxseed Oil
Oat Flour
Quinoa
Wild Rice
Japonica Rice
Green Powder
Hemp Seeds
Mace
Macadamia Nuts
Mushrooms
Sesame Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Oat Flour
Oatmeal (unsweetened)
Olive Oil
Orange Juice
Rice Syrup
Spirulina
Tahini (sesame seed butter)
Vegetable Soup (homemade)
Sprouts
Sucanat (organic)(sweetener)
Wild Rice

Alkaline Foods should be eaten in abundance. To see a list of Acid Forming Foods, click here. or return to the Alkalize Section, click here.

How do we Alkalize?

What Foods Cause an Acid State? What Foods Cause an Alkaline State?

How do we Alkalize our bodies to reverse and prevent disease?

As we talked about in Why Alkalize? An over-consumption of acid causing foods such as proteins, grains, sugar, processed and refined foods, coffee and Alcohol and an under-consumption of alkalizing foods leads us to a state of constant acidosis.

This state of constant overabundance of acid in our bodies leads to premature ageing, poor skin, hair and nails, disruption of our digestive system and further bone loss and dis-ease.

So how do we know which foods are causing our bodies the most harm and which foods help? How do we Alkalize our bodies and return to good health?

Acid Forming Foods vs Alkaline Foods

To start out you can view a list of Acid Forming Foods here and you can view a list of Alkaline Forming Foods here.

Each of these lists has three columns which indicate the high, medium and low foods. High Alkaline foods should be eaten in abundance, especially if you are currently in an Acid State. Some of these foods are Blackberries, Strawberries, Watermelon, Kale, Celery, Lemon Juice and Lime Juice and Pineapple.

Foods in the High Acid Forming Column should be avoided or severely minimized. Some examples of these foods are Alcohol, Soda(all kinds), Hamburgers, Hot dogs (meat and vegetarian), English Muffins, Soy Milk, White Bread, Cakes, Sausage, Cheddar Cheese and all fried foods. Check out the entire list of Acid Forming Foods and remove those in the High acid as quickly as possible to improve your healthy significantly.

Foods in the Medium Acid range should also ideally be eliminated or severely minimized in your diet. A few examples of these foods include coffee, aspartame, saccharin, Chicken, Salmon, Rye Bread and Wheat Crackers.

Foods in the Low acid can be consumed if they are consumed with Alkalizing foods, but they should not be the primary foods of your diet.

Once you look over the list of Acid forming foods you will want to substitute those foods with Alkaline Forming Foods. Alkaline Forming foods should be eaten in abundance. These foods should also ideally be eaten in their Raw and unprocessed Form. You can learn about why our diet should be primarily Raw by reading Why are we so unhealthy today?

If you are currently suffering from any sort of chronic dis-ease state, whether that is Cancer, Diabetes, Arthritis, Heart Disease or any other discomfort then I highly recommend moving rapidly to a high fruit diet. Melons, Berries and Citrus fruits are the most cleansing and alkalizing and will assist your body in a rapid return to health.

If you would like to learn more about The Acid/ Alkaline Balance and its effects on health I highly recommend the following books:

If you are interested in seeing what your bodies current PH is you can get these test strips:

Learn more with these related articles:

Acid Forming Foods List

Alkaline Forming Foods List

How Do I Transition to a Healthy Diet?

Why are we so unhealthy today?

Back to Alkalize Section

Why Alkalize?

What is Alkalizing? Why is it Essential to Health?

Why Should You Be Aware of Your Bodies Current Acid/Alkaline Balance?

You may remember from high school science class the pH scale, acid, and base substances. The pH scale measures the potential for hydrogen and ranges from 0 – most acidic to 14 – most alkaline with 7 being Neutral.

That same pH scale measures the effect of foods on our bodies. Each food you eat creates either an acid state or an alkaline state within.

The human body requires our blood to maintain a pH between 7.365 and 7.45 – a slightly alkaline state. If our blood falls out of this range our body moves quickly into a dis-ease state. If it falls too far out of this range it can lead to complete system failure and death. So this pH balance is exceptionally important to good health and life itself.

This acid-alkaline balance is constantly being maintained by the body’s processes. This is called maintaining homeostasis.

As we eat something acid-forming, the body draws from our stores of Minerals to neutralize the acid and keep the body in a state of Alkalinity. When we eat foods that are Alkalizing, the body replenishes our mineral stores to use at a later time.

Many of our body processes are also acid-forming, as well as toxins in our environment, personal care products, air, and water.

When we eat too many acid-forming foods without balancing those foods with an abundance of alkalizing foods, the body must draw from its reserves of alkalizing minerals.

Over time a diet high in acid-forming foods causes our supplies to become depleted. Then the body must draw alkalizing minerals out of our bones, muscles, and teeth.

Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) is primarily acidogenic – meaning it consists primarily of foods that are acid-causing.

This leads to an overabundance of acid in our body which leads to chronic disease and is also the leading cause of obesity and childhood obesity in our country.

This is also why we are seeing such a high rate of osteoporosis and low bone mass. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 54 million Americans have either Osteoporosis or its precursor, low bone mass. (An interesting side note – the population of the U.S. over age 65 is only around 44 million, so at minimum 10 million Americans under the age of 65 of suffering from Osteoporosis.)

As our stores of alkalizing minerals get used up, the body becomes more and more acidic which opens the body up to dis-ease.

The first and most common sign of this acidic state is fatigue. Even a slight acid imbalance disrupts our body’s ability to produce ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) which is how energy is delivered to our cells.

This slight imbalance also leads to the cells in our body being less efficient with their energy usage. A slight imbalance to an acidic state causes both a decrease in energy production and increased energy consumption by our organs and body processes.

So, we are tired all the time because all of the energy we are consuming is being used inefficiently by our bodies causing a deficit of energy.

The primary organs which work to eliminate this acid build-up, the kidneys, the lungs, and to a lesser extent the skin are continuously taxed and overburdened by the heavy acid load. Over time, this overburden leads to cellular dysfunction which leads to dis-ease.

Our kidneys are the primary regulator of acids, eliminating the majority of acids through urination. When acid levels become excessive, the kidneys call upon reserves of Alkalizing Minerals.

When our diets fail to include enough of these minerals, our body is forced to pull these minerals from our bones and in more extreme cases, from our Muscles, causing muscle wasting.

But I Drink Milk or eat Cheese to get my Calcium.

Cheese Consumption in the United States Chart — _{Source: http://milkprice.blogspot.com/2018/03/cheese-and-butter-consumption-1970-2017.html}

Even though we are diligently drinking our Milk and eating cheese by the pound our rates of bone loss are increasing at a rapid rate. Why is this?

Although there is a large amount of calcium in Milk and Milk products, this calcium is largely indigestible by the body. Milk and Dairy products are also Acid forming foods. Cow’s Milk is a 6.5 Ph, Yogurt is a 6.0 Ph, Cottage Cheese is 5.0 Ph, Cream Cheese is a 4.0 and Processed Cheeses are a 3.0.

Now, if you are not an expert on Ph this may not seem too bad, but consider that Ph is measured to the power of 10. So if water is a 7 on the Ph scale and neutral, 6 is 10 times more acidic, 5 is 100 times more acidic, 4 is 1000 times more acidic and 3 is 10000 times more acidic. This means that processed Cheeses are 10,000 times more acidic then water, which requires an equally large alkaline force to neutralize.

Now the kidneys can only handle acids down to a Ph of 4.5, so any foods ingested that are lower then this Ph must be buffered with alkalizing minerals before they can even be sent to the kidneys for processing.

Our bodies next line of defense is the lungs. Our lungs release acid by binding it with carbon and exhaling Carbonic Acid. As we exhale we can reduce our acid load, but the lungs are far less efficient then the kidneys. So if our kidneys are not functioning at their peak, our body will be less efficient at reducing the acid load. This leads to an excess of acid in the body and a chronic low grade acidosis.

Until we support our body by eating an abundance of alkalizing foods, the acid load continues to grow. Eventually leading to cellular dysfunction and dis-ease.

To a lesser extent our skin can eliminate some of these acids through sweating, however this process is the least efficient. Body odor is a strong sign that the body is in an acid state.

Unfortunately, most of us cover up this tell tale sign with deodorants and antiperspirants which both block the bodies ability to detoxify and disconnect us from our bodies early warning system.

You may have noticed that when you are under stress, your body odor worsens. This is because stress creates an acid state in the body as well. When we cover up these early warning signs, we lose an important signal from our bodies that our body is in distress.

Another danger is sleep deprivation, which causes a severe acid state (3.0 Ph). In today’s busy lifestyle we are suffering from lack of adequate and restful sleep which adds significantly to our chronic acidosis.

Add to that Alcohol, Coffee and Technology which disrupts sleep patterns and causes additional mental and emotional stress on the body and we are starting out in a highly acidic state.

This chronic state of Acidosis caused by our diets, stress and lack of adequate sleep leads to a depletion of essential Alkalizing Minerals, which we must replenish if we are to keep our bodies out of a dis-ease state.

The primary alkalizing minerals are Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium. When we use up our alkaline reserve here are just a few of the results:

Loss of calcium in the urine, which leads to dissolving of bones, osteoporosis, reduced bone formation and brittle bones.
Loss of Potassium and Magnesium which lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and inflammation (Arthritis, Aching Joints)
Protein Catabolism (the breakdown of protein) – also known as muscle wasting and loss of muscle mass.
Depressed protein metabolism, which results in the inability of the body to repair cells, tissues and organs.
Irritation of the urinary tract and bladder, leading to painful urination.
Accelerated Aging, from accumulated acid waste products.
Increased production of free radicals, faster oxidation of free radicals and a decreased ability for antioxidants to protect the cells from free radical damage. (Damage caused by free radicals is a leading cause of Cancer)
Kidney Stones
Fluid Retention
Increased Acidity of the Mouth, leading to cavities, dental decay and periodontal (gum) disease.

And many other serious complications which further weaken the body, inhibit cellular repair and lead to Chronic Disease, Cancer, premature aging and eventually death.

We have convinced ourselves that these are just normal signs of aging. When our joints ache, our skin sags, we get wrinkles and our complexion is poor, we have been convinced these are all just signs we are “getting old”. This is not the case.

All of these are signs that our bodies are in severe distress. But all of these signs can be reversed. No matter your age, you can have abundant energy, you can look younger and feel better, if you start today. To learn how to begin, check out the articles below.

If you would like to measure your bodies current Ph you can get an inexpensive kit by clicking here: HealthyWiser Ph Test Strips, 100ct Per Pack

If you would like to learn more about the Acid Alkaline Balance I highly recommend the following books:

Alkalize or Die: Superior Health Through Proper Alkaline-Acid Balance

The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide – Second Edition: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Efffect on pH Levels

Learn More:

How do we Alkalize?

Healthy Habits

What is healthy?

What is disease?

How do we get healthy?

Why are Americans so unhealthy today?

How to Make a Salad that Satisfies

How to make a Salad that is Tasty and Filling.

Are you ready to learn how to make a salad that will satisfy your ravenous hunger? The main complaint people have with salads is that they are not filling enough. But this is not the salad’s fault, this is a defect in our view of what a salad should be. Today I will show you how to make a salad that is a meal and how to make it healthy, delicious and filling. This is not a recipe, this is a method which can be used to invent any salad you want. So lets talk about how to make a Salad.

How to make a Salad – The Basics

The key to a good salad is three things.

Size- A salad should be large. 1 cup of lettuce is only 5 calories, a little bowl of salad won’t even satisfy a rabbit. So go big or go bigger. Don’t skimp on the greens.
Color – A good salad has lots of color. The whole point of the salad is to get maximum nutrition, so lets see lots of red, yellow, orange, green and especially purple. Bright and Vibrant is the Name of the Game.
Dressing- A good salad is nothing without a good dressing. Make your own healthy blender dressings. They take less then 5 minutes and they are healthier and far tastier then the bottled junk.

So lets get started.

How to make a Salad – Start with the Lettuce

A salad meal should be at least 5 cups of lettuce or baby greens, this is about 1 head of Romaine, Green Leaf or Red Leaf Lettuce. For an even better salad, throw in another cup or two of Spring Mix or Mixed Baby Greens or Baby Spinach. An entire head of Romaine lettuce is only 108 calories, so load on the greens.

How to make a Salad Awesome – Go crazy with the toppings!

Now pick your toppings, at least 3 but 5 or 6 is better:

Veggie fruits for a savory salad:

Tomatoes
Red, Yellow or Orange Bell Pepper
Cucumber
Celery
Zucchini or Yellow Squash
Avocado

Or try a more fruit-centered salad with:

Banana slices
Fresh Berries
Cherries
Apples
Pears
Peaches
Plums
Apricots
Nectarines
Oranges/Tangerines/Clementines
Grapefruit/Citrus
Mangoes
Papaya
Coconut (fresh or raw dry shredded)
Any dried fruits (No Sulfur Added)

You can also include these denser foods in smaller quantities. These foods are more difficult to digest raw and offer less nutritional value but can be used to add some nutrient variety:

Purple Cabbage
Shredded Beets
Shredded Carrots
Green Peas
Green Beans
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cauliflower
any other veggies

At least 1/4 to 1/2 cup of each.

If you are transitioning and want to add some more dense foods to your salads you can optionally add some nuts or seeds, 1/8-1/4 cup:

Raw Pecans
Raw Walnuts
Raw Cashews
Raw Almonds
Raw Sunflower Seeds
Raw Sesame Seeds
Raw Pumpkin Seeds
Raw Chia Seeds
or any other Raw Nuts or Seeds you enjoy

Finally, add your favorite dressing!

If you are just transitioning you can start off with a store-bought dairy-free dressing or you can make your own dressing. Here are some ideas for easy blender dressings:

Avocado + Juice of 1 or 2 limes + Cilantro (optional – cilantro is a mild irritant)
Mango + 1 or 2 Medjool Dates (or 3-4 Deglets)
1 cup Blueberries + 1 or 2 Medjool Dates (or 3-4 Deglets)
1 large Tomato + 2 Medjool dates + a handful of fresh basil
Sunflower Seeds Or Cashew Based Dressings – 1 cup nuts/seeds + Juice of 1 Lemon or Lime + your favorite herbs (Try Sunflower + Cilantro + Lime) Add a pinch of salt as needed.

Here are a few more ideas to make salads fun:

Pick a theme, try a Mexican salad with cucumbers, bell pepper, tomato, and a cilantro lime dressing.
Add finely diced fresh herbs for more flavor (or blend them into a dressing
Add fruits, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and mangoes are all good choices.
Add dried fruits or dehydrated vegetables for a crunchy element
Add seaweeds for more minerals and to satisfy salt cravings while transitioning
Try alternative salads that use other vegetables instead of greens, like shredded carrot salads, shredded beet salads, cabbage salads and kale salads
Switch it up and have a fruit salad
Add some fresh herbs to your fruit salad
Invent a salad based on your favorite meal. Like burritos? Swap the burrito shell for Lettuce and add all your favorite burrito fillings. Top with salsa and guacamole instead of dressing.

As you can see there is a lot of variety and versatility in a salad, but the main key to a good salad is that it is large enough to be filling. So go get yourself a nice serving bowl, toss out the baby bowls, and have yourself a real salad today!

Back to Healthy Habits

21 Day Challenge – A Healthier You in just 3 weeks!

Welcome to my 21 Day Challenge!

Congratulations on taking the first steps toward a healthy, vibrant, disease free new version of you. You 2.0!

What is the 21 Day Challenge?

The 21 day challenge is a commitment you make to yourself for healthy change. There have been several studies that suggest that you can create a new long lasting habit in as little as 21 days. Some say 30 days, some 66 days to break a habit, some say that it is entirely dependent on the individual. But either way, trying to stick to a new healthy habit for 21 days will get you started on the way to wellness, and 21 days is a manageable short term goal.

The purpose of the 21 Day Challenge is to help jump-start you on your way to a healthier new version of you. To do a 21 Day Challenge you can choose any new Healthy Habit that you would like to work on.

Step 1: Decide on a Reward- When you have successfully completed your 21 Day Challenge treat yourself to something special. You earned it!

Here are some ideas for rewards: Take a trip to the beach or your favorite park, reward yourself with a shopping trip, get yourself a new book or a piece of jewelry, get a massage, get a facial, take a day off from cleaning house or taking care of children, take that class you’ve been meaning to start or anything else that really excites you.

Step 2: Get a Calendar and mark off 21 days from the day you plan to start. On the 21st day write your reward. This will help keep you focused. (A printable Calendar is available below)

Step 3: Choose your new habit and commit to the habit for just 3 weeks. (Pick one from the list below or invent your own)

Step 4: Each day, as you complete your challenge habit, mark your calendar with a Smiley face or a nice sticker.

Step 5: When you have reached Day 21, pat yourself on the back, tell yourself how awesome you are and go enjoy your reward.

On Day 22 keep that habit going and challenge yourself to another 21 Day Challenge.

Here is a free calendar that you can use for this Challenge:

21 Day Challenge Calendar

Pick your Challenge or Create one of your own:

Raw till 4 – Eat only Raw fruits or Salads, as much as you want till 4 pm. After 4 pm you can eat a cooked meal of your choice.
Breakfast of Champions – Start your day off right with either a large bowl of fruit, a fruit smoothie or a green smoothie.
Smoothie Reboot – Substitute One or 2 Meals each day for a fruit or green smoothie.
Giant Salad – Substitute either Lunch or Dinner for a very large salad (5-6 cups of Lettuce, or a whole head of Green Leaf, Red Leaf or Romaine Lettuce plus 5-6 fruit or veggie toppings)
Go on a Solid Food Vacation – This one should only be done by those who have already eliminated all meat, dairy and eggs from their diet and are eating at least 50% raw everyday. Going on a solid food vacation means swapping all of your meals for liquid meals, either Smoothies or Fresh Squeezed or Fresh Pressed Juices. The goal is to consume about the same amount of calories you would in a normal day, but all in liquid form.
No food after 7 pm – If you are a late night snacker, this challenge is for you. Finish all your meals by 7 pm so your food is out of your stomach before bed time. Digestions interrupts sleep so stopping all eating a few hours before bed will allow your stomach to finish digesting and you will sleep more soundly.
Intermittent Fasting – Digestion is one of the heaviest energy drains on our bodies. When we are digesting, we are not healing. So working towards longer periods where your body has completed all digestion and the digestive system is at rest means that more energy is available for the body to heal. Set a goal between 10 hours and 18 hours. If you are new to intermittent fasting start with 10 hours. The goal is to put your 10 hours (or whatever number you choose) between your last meal of the evening and the first meal the following day. So if you choose 10 hours and you finish your dinner meal by 7 pm you will not have your next meal until 5 am. Most of that time you will be sleeping. Easy Peasy. If you choose a more moderate goal of 14 hours, your dinner meal is finished by 7pm and your Breakfast is after 9am. Keep Stretching and see how far you can go. You may just surprise yourself.

Learn more about regaining your health, reversing disease and reaching your ideal weight effortlessly:

How do I transition to a Healthy Diet?

What is Healthy?

What is Disease?

What is a Healthy Diet?

6 Disturbing Reasons Why Americans are so Unhealthy

Why are Americans so unhealthy today? Are we feeding ourselves to death?

Why are We so Unhealthy - All Diseases are on the Rise due to these 6 Disturbing facts. — Obesity, Cancer, Heart Disease and Diabetes are all on the rise with no end in sight.

Obesity is on the Rise, So is Cancer, Diabetes, and Heart Disease. We are a nation that is dying younger than our parents and the statistics are not getting any better. We are waging a hundred billion dollar war on disease but more people died of Cancer this year than 30 years ago.

$100 billion dollar war on Cancer but more people died this year than 30 years ago. Learn why:

Click To Tweet

From 1976 to 2006, 62 million people died from medication errors, according to a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The cost of adverse drug reactions are more than $136 billion annually, this is more than cardiovascular and diabetic care combined. One in five hospital patients become injured or die from adverse drug reactions. Yet our medical industries motto is “First Do No Harm.”

Learn more: Check out this article from the National Institute of Health.

One in five hospital patients become injured or die from adverse drug reactions.

Click To Tweet

Why are Americans so unhealthy?

6 Reasons Why we are so Unhealthy - Reason #1, our food is less nutrient dense because our soil is less nutrient dense. — Why are we so unhealthy? Our food is missing essential nutrients that keep us healthy and fight disease.

Over the last several generations, and most drastically over the last 50-75 years we have radically shifted our diets from farm grown, organic produce, fresh organic eggs and farm fresh, pasture raised meats, to chemically produced fruits and vegetables, heavily processed foods and antibiotic ridden meats that are raised on nutrient poor grains instead of their natural diet of organic grasses.

Why are Americans so unhealthy? – Our food is less nutrient dense.

The quality of our food supply has changed drastically. Experts agree that your average vegetable contains up to 40% less nutrition than just a few decades ago. Add to that, the fact that we eat far fewer fruits and vegetables than we did just one and two generations earlier and that 40% less nutrition really adds up (or should I say subtracts?).

Read more about soil depletion and our loss of nutrients here: Scientific America, New York Times, Time Magazine.

Natural and Organic Soil contains 50 or more known nutrients, as well as millions of bugs and bacteria that work together to create, store and process all the nutrients in the soil. After the second World War, the government had surpluses of chemicals from weapons production. These chemicals were passed off to farmers as fertilizer and make up the N-P-K that we know today.

N-P-K stands for Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) which are three elements found in soil which help plants to grow. The problem is, these are only three of fifty or more known nutrients that should be in healthy soil. So year after year, our farmers put down their N-P-K neglecting all of the other Nutrients found in healthy soil.

This depletes the soil as all the other minerals are slowly used up. Now our plants growing in this N-P-K heavy and everything else poor soil have no place to draw up all the other essential minerals. The beneficial insects and microbes can’t survive in this poisoned soil and slowly die off. So we are left with a dead soil which leads to unhealthy, malnourished plants and consequently unhealthy, malnourished humans.

These unhealthy plants then require more and more chemicals to help them survive; pesticides, herbicides and more – a chemical soup.

Why are Americans so unhealthy? – Our food is old.

Before the World Wars, if you wanted fresh vegetables you went to your backyard or to the farmer down the road. Your food was picked fresh that same day. Eggs were laid by the hens that morning and the meat was slaughtered just hours before, maybe even right in front of you. People brought seeds from the old country and passed them down through the generations. The variety of vegetables was plentiful. Wild greens grew readily all around your home, fresh for the picking.

Why are we so Unhealthy? Our Food is Old - Shipping Container - Food Shipped Around the World — Food Shipped Halfway Around the World sits for days or weeks before reaching your plate, losing valuable nutrition the whole time.

Today, most of your food has been shipped 2000 miles or more. It comes from Australia and China, on giant container ships, it comes on trucks from all around the country and from Mexico. It may take a week or more from the time it was picked until the time it was delivered to your grocery store. Then it sits in your refrigerator for another week or more. All of this time the nutrients are slowly breaking down, so by the time this food gets in your mouth, there is barely any nutrition left to feed your body.

Why Are Americans So Unhealthy? – Our Food is Poisoned.

Pesticide Poisons being sprayed on Crops — Pesticides sprayed on food cannot be washed away. The plants absorb them and then we absorb them.

Most of the produce you buy at your local market has been sprayed with all types of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and chemical “nutrients”. We are told this is all safe, but all of these chemicals have giant poison warnings on them. If it is not safe to eat out of the sprayer (or even be nearby when it is being sprayed), why would it suddenly be safe once it is sprayed onto the food? Many of these chemicals have been shown to cause cancer on their own, but most of our foods are sprayed with a whole cocktail of chemicals, not just one.

The chemical companies say, just wash it off, you’ll be safe. Sure, that’s why Round-Up is being found in Breast Milk and our babies are being born with high levels of DDT and Round-Up and many other chemicals before they even take a bite of food.

Or they say, peel the vegetables, the chemicals are only on the outside. Seriously? Vegetables absorb what is sprayed on them, just like a sponge. They suck it up through their root systems, they absorb it through their leaves. Peel away the outside, the poisons are still there.

So now, our food is lacking in the nutrients that help us heal and coated in poisons which our Liver now needs to clean out of our body, along with all the pollution in the air and water it’s already trying to handle.

These poisons not only build up in our bodies, but they build up in the bodies of the livestock we eat. Farm Animals are also fed these heavily sprayed foods, along with a huge cocktail of antibiotics and other questionable “supplements”. And since these pesticides are eaten daily by the animals, when you eat that piece of chicken or that steak, you are now getting all the poisons that animal ate through its lifetime as well. So animal products drastically increase your exposure to these cancer-causing toxins.

Raw Food is Bright, Vibrant and Alive, Cooked Food is Dead Food, which would you rather be? — Live Food makes your more alive, vibrant and full of energy. It makes you look and fell younger. Dead food makes you feel tired and look old.

And Then We Cook the Heck Out of It.

So, if you only walk around the perimeter of the grocery store and you buy fresh produce, eggs, milk and meat, what do you do with it? We cook it! We know that cooking damages the nutrients, scientist have been telling us this for decades. But new studies now prove that cooking changes the molecular form of foods creating additional toxins. Cooking food actually makes many foods carcinogenic (cancer causing), especially high heat cooking, blackening, and grilling. Cooking food creates the carcinogenic chemical Acrylamide, the higher the temperature, or the darker the color(think burnt toast), the more Acrylamide is produced. (Learn more about Acrylamide from the National Cancer institute here.)

So if you regularly cook at home, from fresh simple, unprocessed ingredients, then your food is 40% less nutritious, chemically coated and cooked to death. But how many of us don’t even cook from “scratch”. That is where the middle aisles of the grocery store come in. And if you have been to the grocery store lately, you may have noticed, the middle is the largest part.

So the largest part of the store sells the stuff in the boxes and the cans, and this is where the majority of Americans spend their money. Or perhaps, like 1 in 4 Americans, you are also getting your food from a Fast Food Restaurant every day…

Why are Americans so unhealthy? – Our food is heavily processed.

Dead Food Can't Give Life - Learn how to Avoid Dead Food and Eat only Life Promoting Foods. — Eating dead food makes you tired and sick.

So now we have food that has less nutrition in it and has been sprayed with a toxic soup and now we process that food. Cook it, strip it down, add some more chemicals to it for seasoning and a few more to preserve it and throw it in a box or a can or a bottle. Then we ship it off to a warehouse to sit for a few months or a few years before we ship it to a store to sit on the shelves. Then we bring it home and let it sit in our pantry a little more.

So now this food is old, old, old, and guess what? It’s dead. There is no life in it, there is no vibrancy, the nutrients are gone, the energy is gone. So we fuel our bodies with the calorie dense, nutrient poor sludge and then we feel tired, depressed, sluggish and slow. Why? because our food is dead, it can’t give us life.

We think we know what to eat, but we are way off the mark.

So now we know that the majority of our food is cooked to death, starved of nutrients and loaded with Toxins, but at least we know the right things to eat right? Wrong.

Our perception of what our plates should be has been skewed far from a natural human diet. Our government has presented us with the “Food Pyramid,” where we are told to stuff ourselves with heavily processed starches: 6-11 servings of Bread, Cereal, Rice, and Pasta. Consuming all of these wheat and starch based products sends our blood sugar on a wild ride with wide-ranging negative effects on your health from Diabetes to Heart Disease.

Now add to that 2 to 3 servings of meat and 2 to 3 servings of dairy. Eat only 2 to 4 servings of Fruit per day, which most people don’t even meet on an average day. Eat 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, but no mention of leafy greens. And of course don’t forget your added sugars and fats, used sparingly of course. So if we were to follow this guideline strictly and eat the maximum servings, that is 26 servings, only 7 servings are coming from foods that contain vital nutrients: fruits and vegetables. That leaves 19 servings of useless filler: fats, sugars and mostly indigestible animal proteins.

So we are stuffing ourselves to the brim with “foods” that keep our body constantly starved for nutrients. Sounds crazy right? So lets put a stop to this madness. Let’s start preventing disease by eating food, not science projects.

Want to learn how to eat healthily easily and prevent disease? Sign up for my newsletter to get recipes, healthy tips, quick fixes and important health news. Read on:

What is a healthy diet?

What is Disease?

What is healthy?

How do we get healthy?

What is a healthy diet?

Join me in Eating for Health. Reverse Disease, Lose weight and have more energy by using common sense and eating a natural human diet.

What is a Healthy Diet?

How Do we determine a healthy diet through all the misinformation?

What is a healthy diet really? There is so much misinformation and contradictory information that we are bombarded with daily, it is difficult to discern the truth from the half truths and the outright misinformation. Advertisers have, for decades now, been able to provide misinformation about health in order to promote their products, with a complete disregard for our health. Scientists and Doctors are being bought by industries to deliberately mislead us into believing that we should eat more of this and less of that. So how to we sort through all the lies and find a truly healthy diet?

Our Food system is broken – How do we fix it?

Our food system has become a wasteland of nutrition-less junk, science projects and non-foods that we routinely are led to believe are healthy. So what is a healthy diet really? How do we even determine what is healthy and what is not? Well to start with, we need to look for nutrient rich foods. As we talked about in What is Disease?, a nutrient poor and toxin rich diet leads to disease. So a healthy diet is a diet which is nutrient rich and low in Toxins.

So where do we look for a more nutrient rich diet?

How do we find out what we should be eating?

The best way to sort through all the misinformation and get to the facts is by looking at nature. Animals in their natural habitat eat food which is naturally designed for their optimal health. They don’t eat cooked food, they don’t eat processed foods, they just eat foods as nature intended.

To find our ideal diet we can look at our closest biological relatives in the animal kingdom. The Chimpanzee shares 98.6% of the same DNA as humans. They are our closest ancestors, and while I am not suggesting that we hop into the trees and start eating insects, we can certainly base a healthy human diet off of their example.

Chimpanzee Diets consist primarily of fruits, greens and blossoms, with some seeds, pith, bark and small amounts of insects. Some chimpanzees eat a small amount of meat, the equivalent of about 3% of their total diet or 9 days a year, although not all Chimpanzees eat meat. The meat they eat is raw, fresh and unprocessed, as close to its natural form as possible.

So using this example we can look at a healthy human diet like this. We should be consuming primarily fruit, 50% of our diet should come from fruit. Then large amounts of leafy greens, at least 20-25% of our diet should be leafy greens. Vegetables would come next with 15-20%. Fruits, greens and vegetables should include a large variety, varied both seasonally and weekly. The remaining 5-15% should consist of Nuts, Seeds, Cold Pressed Oils, and if desired, organic pasture raised meats or organic fish and organic eggs.

So how do we go from a nation living in a state of chronic dis-ease to a state of vibrant health and abundant energy? How do we change from a nation of Animal Protien and Dairy consumers to fruit and vegetable consumers? We start slow, we make small changes until they become a habit and then we make a few more.

Want to learn more about how to eat healthy? Read on:

How do I transition to a Healthy diet? Getting Started in a Healthy Diet. Healing your body from the inside out.

How to get healthy today – Part One: Eliminate the Toxins

Are the foods we are eating unhealthy? Do unhealthy foods lead to disease? Can healthy foods undo the damage?

To attain good physical health, to be free of disease, to achieve a healthy weight and to gain strength and vibrancy, we must fuel our bodies with the nutrients it requires.

To attain true mental health, we must first have a brain that is functioning properly. To have a brain that is functioning properly, then we must fuel our brain with the nourishment that good food provides. Once our brain is nourished, then we can begin to rebuild our thoughts to attain the strongest and happiest version of ourselves.

So it all comes down to the food we consume. Good food equals good health and unhealthy food equals disease, depression and discomfort.

In order to understand what good food is, first we must look at what unhealthy foods we consume regularly in the Standard American Diet. It is important to understand what is unhealthy so we can begin to replace these unhealthy foods, which rob our energy, with healthy foods that support a vibrant, strong body and a strong positive mind. So lets take a look at some of the food that we eat in a Standard American Diet (S.A.D.):

Dairy

Dairy is a huge contributor to disease in our country. We have been taught since childhood to drink a big glass of Milk every day for strong bones. But did you know that there is not a single study, that was not paid for by the Dairy Council, that shows that milk builds strong bones?

All independent studies showed that people who consumed milk daily actually had less calcium in their bodies at the end of the study then when it started.

This is why, even though most of us have been taught since childhood to drink milk every day, the rate of Osteoporosis is steadily on the rise. Crazy right?

Milk is acidic (6.5 ph) and consuming milk and all dairy products regularly, leads to the body being in an Acidic state. In order to survive, the body must maintain a ph of between 7.35 and 7.45, so when the body becomes Acidic, the body pulls from its mineral reserves, calcium being one of the most effective, to neutralize the acid and get the body back into homeostasis. (See Alkalize to learn more about Ph and why it matters.) So if we consume too many acid causing foods, without balancing them with abundant amounts of Alkalizing foods, eventually our Alkalizing Mineral stores will become depleted, and this is when disease begins.

Let’s look a little deeper at Milk. If we look to the animal kingdom, there is no other species around the world which consumes the milk of another species, this should be our first clue. Also looking at the animal kingdom, there is not another species on our entire planet which drinks milk from its mother once it has been weaned. You don’t find a juvenile or adult animal anywhere in nature who consumes milk.

Cow’s Milk is specially designed for baby calves, which being born at around 100 pounds quickly gain weight, growing to 8 times their weight (800 lbs) before being weaned. A human baby, being breast fed should gain about 6-8 pounds in their first year, so with an average weight of 8 pounds at birth this is just about 2 times their birth weight by their first birthday.

The composition of human milk, cow’s milk, goat’s milk and all other mammalian milks are completely unique, they contain different levels of proteins, sugars and nutrients in a specific balance which has been determined by millions of years of evolution. These milks are specifically designed for the unique bodies and growth patterns of their own species. The only milk we as humans need, is human breast milk, and only until we are grown enough to eat solid food.

Let’s just look at one last factor about dairy. How do we get the milk we drink? As you probably know, female cows, just like human women, only produce milk as long as they are nursing. As the baby cow weans, in nature that is, the milk production stops. So how do factory farms circumvent nature and get cows to continue to produce milk long after they naturally would?

Modern Dairy cows, through extensive genetic manipulation, have been bred to significantly increase the amount of milk they produce, up to 12 times what they would in nature. Then by artificially inseminating cows (on what the dairy industry so appropriately calls a “rape rack”) and then taking away their calf, the dairy “farmer” is able to take the milk meant to raise the calf.

So we have bred these cows to produce far more milk then they ever would naturally and we steal their newborn child from them. If you have ever been a mother or know someone who has, you can attest to the physical drain that the body is put through during childbirth and breast feeding. This is why it is so important for mothers to be properly nourished, so they can support their own health as well as their babies health. Well we are taking this extremely draining process and forcing these cows to go through it for an unnaturally long time, just so we can drink something that is detrimental to our own health. Does this sound crazy to anyone else?

Protein

We have a misguided notion that we need large amounts protein to build muscles and to survive. I am not sure where this idea came from, but it is pervasive. If you don’t believe me, just ask any vegetarian or Vegan what is the question you get asked most frequently? They will say, “Where do you get your protein?” As Americans we are always concerned that we are getting enough protein, but actually the average American eats more the double the RDA for protein, primarily from animal and dairy sources. At 125 lbs your RDA protein requirement would be 46 grams for females and 56 grams for males, however this RDA has a large margin of error built in, and our bodies actually can survive and thrive on far less protein.

You can determine your own RDA for protein by using this formula: Body weight (in pounds) x 0.36 = recommended protein intake (in grams)

The problems with consuming too much protein, particularly from animal sources are numerous. Consuming large amounts of protein has been shown to increase urinary calcium loses. Which means the more protein you eat, the more likely you are to get Osteoporosis. Protein from animal sources has also been shown to be the cause or a major contributing factor to several Cancers including Colon Cancer, Breast Cancer and Colorectal Cancer.

The biggest problem with consuming Animal proteins is in the cooking process, most Animal foods require cooking and most are cooked at very high temperatures, which not only kills enzymes which help to break down food in the body so it is digestible, but also cooking anything at high heat, changes its molecular form, making it Carcinogenic (cancer causing) to the body. Cooking also destroys most, if not all of the nutrients in the food, so not only are we consuming large amounts of foods which have been shown to be cancer causing but we are cooking all of the beneficial nutrients out of these foods. So what are we left with? A big mass of hard to digest useless material which makes us nutrient deficient, tired and depressed.

Toxins

As Americans we consume a staggering amount of Toxic substances, from food coloring and MSG to artificial sweeteners and petroleum by products. We are also subjected to Toxins in the air, in the water we drink, in the pesticides sprayed on our foods and in the personal care products we use on our bodies every day. We have been led to believe that these products are safe to use everyday, through advertising campaigns by the companies who make a profit off of these products.

Scientific studies saying the opposite have been silenced by the big corporations that profit from our pain, even to the point of threatening Scientists lives or the lives of their children and families. Scientists and Doctors have been bought, put on the payroll of giant food companies and industry boards, like the Dairy board, to spread misinformation and discredit true studies. But slowly this information is coming out and we are no longer subject to only the information that the most money can buy, thanks to the internet and social media, documentaries, independent publishers and individual people who are tired of being sick and poisoned for profit. Advertisers no longer have ultimate control over the information we receive. We are now free to search for studies that have not been paid for by the corporations trying to get approval from the FDA.

All of these toxins are acid causing in the body, which further strips our bodies of nutrients as our body naturally tries to keep our body at a slightly alkaline Ph. (To learn more about Body Ph and why it is the key to disease, check out the Alkalize Section of this website.)

Most people don’t realize, that the body uses fat cells to store toxins which it can not process quick enough. So the more toxins your body is subjected to, the more fat cells your body will store. One amazing example of this process is “Diet” Soda. Diet Soda uses artificial sweeteners to maintain a low calorie beverage. The problem is these artificial sweeteners are highly toxic to the body, so the body attempts to clean them out using the liver and kidneys. But as we continue to consume them daily, the liver becomes over taxed, so the body jumps into survival mode and starts shoving these toxins into buffered little fat cells. To protect the body from these poisons.

This is why, even though the market is saturated with “diet” products, obesity is on the rise. Have you ever noticed that there are very few skinny people who drink diet soda regularly? And those that do are usually skinny for other reasons, like being smokers or taking diet pills. They do not typically look healthy, their complexion is usually a little grey or even yellow. They are tired all the time or they are constantly hyped up on caffeine.

Grains

We consume large amounts of grains through not only the consumption of breads, cakes and pastries, but also hidden in lots of processed foods like your breakfast cereal. Have you ever tried to eat a dry, unprocessed grain? Not very appetizing, yet grains make up an astounding percentage of our daily meals. You have probably heard, through advertising, the health benefits of consuming “Whole Grains” and I’m sure you’ve seen the stickers on products all around the grocery store for “heart healthy, contains whole grains”.

Haven’t we always consumed grains?

Grains are so ingrained in our lives (pun not intended) that we think that they have always been a part of the human diet, but in reality grains have only been consumed by humans for 10,000 years. Okay, you are probably thinking, 10,000 years is a long time, I’m sure they are fine. But when you consider that scientists have determined that humans as we are now have been around for about 200,000 years and our ancestor species have been around for about 6 million years, 10,000 years is a comparatively small length of time and certainly not enough time for us to evolve our digestive processes significantly.

Grains began being harvested in mass quantities during the Agricultural Revolution. The consumption of grains is also in direct correlation with the decline in human intelligence and strength. Scientist have been studying the strength and intelligence of humans, which peaked just before the Agriculture Revolution and has been on a steady decline since.

Grains are not all bad, but unfortunately the way that we consume grains has changed so drastically that our bodies can get little to no benefit from them in their current state. Originally, grains were harvested and left in the fields, where they would naturally sprout before consumption. Grains contain Phytic Acid, which is a nutrient blocker. When Phytic Acid is consumed, it blocks the bodies ability to absorb nutrients. When allowed to sprout, the phytic acid is broken down and the nutrient content rises in the grains.

Since our grains are now harvested immediately and shipped off for processing, they still contain this Phytic Acid and the nutrients are limited. So now we are consuming another food which is stripping our body of nutrients rather then providing them. If we could bring our grain processing back to more natural methods, where they are sprouted and naturally fermented they might not be so damaging, but in their current highly processed state, they are not offering us much in the way of nutrition.

So now that we have looked at the biggest offenders of unhealthy foods in the S.A.D. diet, lets look at how we can remove these unhealthy foods and replace them with healthy food options.

What is Healthy really?

What is healthy and how do we get there?

Healthy is a body free of disease.

Healthy is a mind free from negative thoughts.

Healthy is being full of vibrant energy, enjoying life and being truly happy in your life.

Healthy is being at peace.

If we are missing any piece of the puzzle it keeps us from achieving true health. If we don’t eat well we all know that we can gain weight or feel ill. But what is more important is that when we don’t eat well our body is not vibrant and full of energy and our mind is not clear and positive.

Obesity is the most common form of malnutrition in America.

Poor diet and malnutrition affect our mind. Being malnourished can lead to depression, emotional imbalance and negative thoughts and feelings.

The sad fact is, nearly all Americans are malnourished thanks to the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) of grains, animal products, sugar and processed “foods”.

The food choices you make can have far-reaching consequences and can influence your life and your future.

Poor food

can lead to weight gain
and poor complexion
makes us weak and sad
makes us tired
and not willing or able to exercise
makes us old before our time
makes us achy and sore
makes us sick
makes us depressed
causes unbalanced hormones
and so much more…

Every cell in your body is affected by what you eat and drink. You are the sum of everything you put in and on your body. What you eat, drink and breathe feeds the cells that create you. If you feed them poorly, they will create a damaged version of yourself, both physically and mentally.

What about exercise?

We all know that exercising can boost our mood and help us lose weight.

And we know that we are supposed to exercise. But we don’t. Why? Because we are tired, our body is lacking the fuel it needs to run.

The truth is exercise should not be a chore, a healthy body vibrates with energy and is naturally drawn to move.

But with our poor diets and a food system which is calorie dense but nutrient poor, we feel fatigued just climbing off the couch.

This leads to further mental discomfort, as we blame ourselves for being too “lazy” to exercise.

But this is not the case.

It is not your fault.

We have been misled by years of advertising to think that healthy foods are unhealthy and unhealthy foods are healthy.

We have been led to believe that it is our fault if we are overweight, and we should just pop another pill to make us skinny or happy.

Have another cup of coffee to pick you up.

Have another drink to make you fun.

Meanwhile, the pills and the food and the alcohol make us fatter, sicker and more depressed.

We have been led astray from vibrant health. But we can get it back.

I have gone from a tired, overweight, sad, “lazy”, non-athletic woman, to a vibrant, happy, strong and determined woman. I have seen 50 pounds shed from my body effortlessly, not from exercise or starving myself, but from focusing on nutrition.

I am not a member of a gym, I am not running on a treadmill to burn calories. I don’t count calories or points either.

I have shed sadness and depression from my mind, and I have gained a confidence in myself which I have never possessed before.

I have gone from being exhausted and out of breath walking a mile, to hiking 16 miles and 4000ft to the top of Mount Charleston without any fatigue, ready to go further. Exercise is no longer a chore I force upon myself, but a freedom that brings me great joy.

As with any change, there have been bumps along the road. I have not been perfect, there have been weeks at a time where I go back to eating junk. But the difference now is that I can feel how bad it makes me feel.

Before, my body was so burdened by the S.A.D. diet that I didn’t know what it felt like to be happy and vibrant and full of energy.

Now I know that it is the fake food making me tired and stressed and depressed, and I love the way my body feels when I eat real food, nutritious food, so I go right back.

Gaining true happiness starts with your food. When your body is clean, your mind is filled with positive thoughts and your soul is at peace. Then you have reached true health.

If you would like to learn how to shed weight effortlessly, to have abundant energy and to free your mind of negativity then read on:

Where do we begin? How did I regain my health? How can you find your way back to health?

Acid Forming Foods

List of Acid Forming Foods and Their Role in Disease Creation

Acid forming foods are foods which, when eaten, the byproducts create an acidic condition in the body. This acidic condition must be alleviated by the body to avoid acidosis and ultimately death. (You can learn all about the Acid/Alkaline Balance and how it relates to health here: Alkalize Section.)

There are three levels of Acid Forming Foods: High Acid Forming, Medium Acid Forming and Low Acid Forming. Levels on the Ph Scale are to the power of 10, so a Ph of 5 is 10 times more acidic then a Ph of 6.

So as you look at the list of High, Medium and Low Acid Forming foods, remember that Medium is significantly more Acid Forming then Low and High is significantly more the Medium.

Ideally, you want to only consume very small amounts of High Acid and Medium Acid foods, and balance those with Abundant amounts of Alkaline Foods.

Please note that some foods which are acidic in taste, like lemons, leave a highly alkaline waste in the body after digestion. This is due to the alkaline mineral content and not the overall acidity of any food. On the opposite end of the spectrum, foods like bread, which do not have an acidic flavor are highly acid forming in the body.

You can see a list of Alkaline Foods here: List of Alkaline Forming Foods.

List of Acid Forming Foods

High Acid Forming

Beer, Pale
Gin
Malt Liquor, Pale
Scotch
Vodka
American Cheese
Angel Food Cake
Bacon
Bagels
Baking Chocolate
Bangers
Soy Beans
Bologna
Coneydogs
Hot Dogs
Hamburgers
Meat (Steaks, Roasts, etc)
Mince
Sausage
Espresso
All Sodas/Cola
Soy Milk
Milk Shakes
Tonic Water
Biscuits
Bread Sticks
Croissants
Crumpets
English Muffins
Matzoh, white flour
Pita, white flour
Scones
Tortillas, white flour
White Bread
Breakfast Sandwich with Eggs, Cheese and Sausage or Ham
Brown Sugar
Brownies
Burrito with Chicken or Beef
Ceasar Salad Dressing
Carrot Cake
Cheesecake
Coffee Cake
Cupcakes
Devils Food Cake
Donuts
Yellow Cake
Camembert Cheese
Frosted Corn Flakes
Grits, Soy
Cheddar Cheese
Gouda Cheese
Hard Cheese, most
Mozzarella Cheese
Swiss Cheese
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Nuggets
Chicken Sandwich
Chili with Beef
Potato Chips, fried
Corn Chips
Tortilla Chips
Chocolate (Baking, Dark and Milk)
Cocoa Powder
Cookies
Corn Syrup
Cottonseed Meal
Cottonseed Oil
Couscous
Saltine Crackers
Cranberry Sauce, sweetened
Croutons, white flour
Pies, commercial
Pudding
Frozen Yogurt
Egg Noodles
Egg White Powder
Farina Cereal
Filberts (Hazelnuts)
Lobster
Muscles
Prawns
Shrimp
Swordfish
Fish Filet Sandwich
Rice Flour
Soy Flour
White Flour (wheat)
Vegetarian Hot Dogs
Onion Rings
All Fried Foods
Fruit Preserves or Jellies, sweetened with sugar or cornsyrup
Gouda Cheese
Malt
White Sugar
Vegetarian Hamburger, soy based
Hazelnut butter
Table Salt (Iodized) – (sea salt is high Alkaline)
Hops
Ice Cream
Lasagna
Pasta, Macaroni, white flour
Beef Sausage
Corned Beef
Pork Sausage
Salami
Macaroni and Cheese
Marmite/Vegemite
Bacon
Rashers
Veal
Mussels
Egg Noodles
Pancakes
Cheese Danish
Puff Pastry
Phosphoric Acid (food Additive)
Pizza, all flavors, with or without cheese
Pretzels
Protein Powders, most types, especially whey and soy
Quiche
Red Wine Vinegar
Roast Beef Sandwich
Tofu
Tacos with Beef or Chicken
White Vinegar
Waffles
Walnuts
Yeast
Soy Milk

Medium Acid Forming

Beer, dark
Malt Liquor, dark
Wine, Red and White
Anchovy paste
Apple Pie, homemade, lightly sweetened
Aspartame
Saccharin
Baked Beans with Pork
Barbaque Sauce
Barley, Whole Grain
Barley Flour
Bass
Peanuts
Liver
Benzoate (preservative)
Decaffeinated Coffee
Coffee
Cow’s Milk, Chocolate
Rice Milk
Vitamin Water with Sweetners
Bison (Buffalo) Meat
Bratwurst
Turkey Bologna
Oat Bran
Bran Cereal
Bran Flakes with Raisins, sweetened
Matzoh, whole wheat flour
Pita, Whole Wheat
Pumpernickle Bread
Rye Bread
Corn Tortillas
Whole Wheat Bread
Bulgur Wheat
Catfish
Ketchup
Corn Flakes
Grits, Corn
Oat Bran
Puffed Rice, white
Cottage Cheese
Cream Cheese
Most Soft Cheeses
Chicken
Chicken Liver
Chinese Mustard
HP sauce
Malt Vinegar
Mustard, prepared
Pickle relish
Steak sauce
Sweet and sour Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Corn
Corn Flour
Corn Starch
Corn Syrup
Corn Meal
Crabs
Rye Crackers
Whole Wheat Crackers
Cranberries
Cream Cheese
Pies, Homemade, Fruit, Lightly Sweetened
Lard
Peanut Oil
Soybean Oil
Duck
catfish
Flounder
Grouper
Haddock
Halibut
Herring
Mackerel
Orange Roughy
Oysters
Perch
Pike
Pilchards
Pollack
Salmon
Sardines
Scallops
Scrod
Sea Bass
Snapper
Squid
Tuna
Turbot
Whitefish
Whiting
Yellowtail
Rye flour
Turkey Hot dogs
Olives, ripe
Pomegranates
Goat
Polenta
Rye
White Rice
Ham
Turkey Burgers
Vegetarian Burger, bean based
Kielbasa Sausage
Knockwurst, sausage
Lamb
Lard
Liver, beef or chicken
Liverwurst
Pastrami
Pepperoni
Turkey Lunch Meat
Lamb
Rabbit
Venison
Peanut Butter
Pistachio Buter
Peanuts
Pecans
Pistachio Nuts
Whole Wheat Pastas
Tomato (Pasta) sauce with meat
Pickles, sweet with white vinegar and sugar
Pistachio Nuts
Popcorn
Rice Cakes/Popcorn Cakes
Pork, most (Bacon and sausage/banger is high acid)
Tempeh
Venison

Low Acid Forming

Adzuki Beans
Rice Wine
Almond Milk, commercial sweetened
Amaranth Flour
Amaranth Seeds
Apple Juice, sweetened
Arrowroot Flour
Baked Beans, Vegetarian
Balsamic Vinegar
Black Beans
Chickpeas
Fava Beans
Great Northern Beans
Lima Beans
Mung Beans
Navy Beans
Green Peas
Split Peas, green or yellow
Pinto Beans
Runner Beans
White Beans
Mature Green Beans (with formed beans)
Cow’s Milk, (Whole, skim, 1%, 2%)
Goat’s Milk
Kefir (Cow’s Milk)
Mirin (rice wine)
Black Tea
Tomato Juice
Vegetable Juice, commercial (homemade is highly alkaline)
Tap Water, most sources, Chlorinated or not Chlorinated
Black Bean Soup
Bran Flakes with Raisins, unsweetened
Broad Beans
Brown Rice
Brown Rice Cakes
Brown Rice Flour
Brown Rice Pasta
Buckwheat Flour
Buckwheat Groats
Buckwheat Noodles
Butter
Canola Oil
Carrot Juice, commercial
Kasha
Oatmeal
Porridge
Swiss Chard
Curd Cheese
Cherimoya
Clam Juice
Clams
Cockles
Coleslaw
Duck Sauce
Green Curry Paste
Hoisin Sauce
Mayonaisse
Oyster Sauce
Peanut Satay Sauce
Plus Sauce
Salad Cream
Thai Fish Sauce
Cream
Sour Cream
Curd Cheese
Curry Powder
Dates
Apricots, dried
Figs, dried
Prunes
Eggs, white or whole
Cannola Oil
Safflower Oil
sunflower Oil
Sesame oil
Vegetable Oil
Millet Flour
Triticale Flour
Freekah
French Dressing
Guava
Plums
Tomatoes
Gelatin
Millet
Brown Rice
Teff
Triticale
Wheat, unrefined
Vegetarian Burger, no soy, few to no beans, mostly vegetables
Honey
Hummus
kidney beans
Spinach
Maple Syrup
Mochi
MSG (monosodium glutamate)
Buckwheat Noodles
Soba Noodles
Pine Kernals
Pine Nuts
Oats
Pasta Sauce, no meat
Ranch Dressing
Rhubarb
Russian Dressing
Thousand Island Dressing
Split Pea Soup, no meat
Tomato Soup
Stevia
Teff
Vanilla Extract
Carrots, commercial (organic are alkaline)

To see a list of Alkaline Foods read Alkaline Forming Foods.

To Learn about the Acid Alkaline Balance read Why Alkalize?.

Return to the Alkalize Section